One person is dead after fire engulfed a retirement village in Springvale overnight.
The alarm was raised when a Victoria Police speed camera operator passed the units on Buckingham Avenue, Springvale, about midnight.
Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade crews attended the blaze and evacuated a number of elderly female residents from the Department of Human Services facility.
The fire caused damage to a number of units and was brought under control in about half an hour, a CFA spokeswoman said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Lamb said the ceiling had collapsed.
“We’re very lucky tonight that we haven’t had five or six fatalities,” he told reporters at the scene.
He said police and firefighters were able to get to the fire within only a few minutes as the property is next to a police station.
A police spokeswoman said the dead person had not yet been identified, but that a woman aged in her 80s remained unaccounted for.
“The CFA and the MFB were here very quickly and kept the fire to one unit,” she said.
Police have cordoned off the area and an arson chemist will attend the scene later on Thursday.
