QLD:Forensic exam of fire scene nearly done

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2011
QLD:Forensic exam of fire scene nearly done

BRISBANE, Aug 28 AAP - Forensic police are close to wrapping up their search for clues
at the site of Queensland's worst residential house fire.

Police on Sunday returned to the burnt-out shell of the Logan house where 11 people
died, saying they're expecting to finish their on-site investigations on Monday.

They say the fire appears to have started in a downstairs office but are yet to reveal the cause.

About thirty family members and supporters, mostly Tongan and Samoan locals, are keeping
a vigil outside the Slacks Creek house.

Relative Lopeti Robert says it will be cold comfort to know what started the blaze
that killed his cousin, 57-year-old matriarch Fusi Kalau Taufa, and 10 others.

"You can't bring back anybody knowing the reason but it helps," he told AAP.

Mourners will continue to stay at the site until the bodies of the dead are buried, he said.

"Where else can we go? We can't stay at home, we can just come here."

Family are waiting for the state coroner to return remains before they can hold a funeral.

The final two bodies were removed from the Slacks Creek house on Friday as hundreds
of members of the Tongan and Samoan communities kept a vigil outside.

The blaze tore through the house in the early hours of Wednesday morning killing three
women, including Fusi Kalau Taufa's sister Teukisia Lale, 42, and Fusi's daughter Annamaria
Taufa, 23.

It also killed eight children. They were Teukisia's five children, Jerry, 18, Paul,
17, Lafoa'i, 14, Sela, 10, and Richie 8, Annamaria's daughters Lahaina, 7, and Kalahnie,
3, and Fusi's other granddaughter Ardelle Lee, 16.

Only three men survived the blaze, Fusi's husband Tau Taufa, 66, Teukisia's husband
Jeremiah Lale, 50, and Annamaria's partner Misi Matauina, 22.

AAP mjf/hn

KEYWORD: FIRE

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