A horrific house fire engulfed a home in Melbourne’s west at midnight, claiming the life of a 3-year-old boy and leaving his father, whose body was caught in flames, hospitalized in critical condition.

The devastating blaze broke out around midnight at a single-storey brick veneer home on Newbury Court in Werribee. At the moment the core of the fire erupted violently, at least three people were trapped inside.

In a state of sheer panic, 40-year-old Jeremy Dashwood—the victim’s father—bravely smashed through a window, defying the imminent danger to rush back into the inferno in search of his young son, 3-year-old Jordan Dashwood. However, no miracle occurred. Eyewitnesses at the scene watched in horror as Jeremy emerged from the house with the fire already enveloping and burning the clothes off his body. Meanwhile, Jordan’s 11-year-old brother managed to escape through a window. Two older siblings in the family escaped the tragedy simply by not being home at the time.

Within just three minutes of receiving the emergency call reporting multiple children trapped inside, rescue services rushed to the scene. However, after completely extinguishing the blaze, firefighters made the painful discovery of young Jordan’s body.

Living directly across the street from the stricken home, local resident Thanh Zannit recalled the harrowing moment he was jolted awake by a series of loud bangs in the middle of the night. “I checked out my window, there was fire out the left and the right sides [of the house], big flames,” Zannit shared.

The moment he ran outside, Zannit saw an ambulance already stationed on the street, though fire trucks had yet to arrive. He immediately raced over to open the front gate to help the family escape, but that exit path was already completely cut off. In desperation, he dragged his garden hose from his front yard to try and spray the fire, but the distance from across the street was far too great, leaving the water entirely useless. “The lady was saying ‘My baby’s inside’,” he said. “I feel really upset, I really wanted to help, but I couldn’t do anything.”

Zannit was also the one who witnessed Jeremy step out of the property with flames burning across his body. Currently, paramedics said the man, who is Jordan’s father, is now in the Alfred Hospital “in a serious condition with upper and lower body injuries.”

By Monday morning, the scene of the fire was reduced to nothing but a bleak, ruined wreckage. Large holes on both sides of the house revealed blackened timber beams within. Rested quietly next to the property’s front fence—which now has police tape over it—was a toy Nerf gun, a heartbreaking remnant of a childhood cut short.

Gathered outside a neighboring house where Jordan’s mother and grandmother were collapsing from grief, family friend Bianca Mizzi pulled Dashwood’s grandmother into a teary hug upon meeting her at the front gate. Mizzi said she felt sick thinking about what had happened.

“[Jordan] was so beautiful, but so cheeky,” she said. “When he was little, I used to love to cuddle him, but he wouldn’t have a bar of it. He was like ‘you’re my friend from afar’.”

Mizzi said she found out about the fire from the VicEmergency app, and then drove by the house at 3am to confirm her worst fears. It was another two hours before her family found out what had happened to Jordan and his father. “I felt so sick, just tears instantly,” she said.

Currently, police have confirmed a person has died in an early morning house fire at Newbury St, Werribee. Authorities have confirmed that the fire is not being treated as suspicious. Police are urging anyone with information to contact CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000.