Brisbane news live: Fire razes multi-generational family home

Four generations of one Brisbane family were left seeking emergency accommodation last night after a fire engulfed their home.

Emergency services were called about 1.30pm to the two-storey house on Zell Street, in Riverhills, and arrived to find the home “well involved” in flames.

A fire engulfed a two-storey family home in Brisbane’s west yesterday afternoon, leaving four generations of the one family to seek emergency accommodation last night.Credit: Nine News Queensland

While the fire department said all residents – including an elderly couple and three dogs – were accounted for, the home was destroyed, with firefighters reporting extensive structural damage including a collapsed staircase and caved-in roof.

Seven fire crews attended the scene, and the fire was extinguished before 2.30pm, although at least two crews remained to dampen down the structure.

Police and fire investigators could safely access the property by 5pm, and officers declared a crime scene.

Firefighters suspected the fire might have originated in the top level of the house, but investigations were continuing.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has rejected calls from sexual abuse survivors to ban male staff from childcare centres, as the cases of two Victorian men accused of abusing dozens of children draw fresh criticism to the sector.

Frecklington told 4BC’s Peter Fegan the state government was placing children “at the front and centre of everything we do”, but said a gender-based ban was not the answer.

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“I know that what’s happening now, or has happened or come to light, in Victoria really has and will be bringing up traumatic memories for people in Queensland,” Frecklington said.

“I’m not convinced that banning half the population is in the best interest of our children… I think that children do benefit from having both positive male and female role models.”

Frecklington added she was “completely sickened” by offences committed by convicted child predator and former childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith against almost 70 children across two decades – a case that has informed an ongoing review into Queensland’s response to child sexual abuse and Blue Card system.

“It is very important that we get to the bottom of what’s going wrong in these centres with people that are working with children and we need to fix the system and rebuild the faith,” Frecklington said.

The Queensland government also launched an inquiry largely focused on the safety of children in residential care on Wednesday, with results expected by the end of November 2026.

You thought last year’s flu season was bad? This year is already shaping up to be worse.

More than 2800 flu cases were recorded last week, making it the highest number of flu cases recorded in a single week this year.

And year-to-date cases, from January 1 to June 29, are already 19 per cent higher than they were over the same time period in 2024.

While influenza A is making up about four in five cases of the flu in Queensland, influenza B cases are seven times higher than they were during the first six months of 2024.

There were 24,708 lab-confirmed flu cases in Queensland from January 1 to June 29, 2024 and 29,514 cases in the same period in 2025.Credit: Queensland Health

Chief Health Officer Dr Heidi Carroll said almost 300 hospital beds every day were occupied by patients hospitalised for flu and COVID-19 in Queensland.

“Around half of all flu hospitalisations and 65 per cent of COVID hospitalisations are among people aged 65 and over,” she said.

This year’s flu trend seems to be mirroring last year’s, when cases peaked in late July, rather than in 2022 and 2023, when cases peaked in May and June.