Photo: Goya Dmytryshchak
A sheetless, unmade single bed. A small chest of drawers. This is where the man accused of injuring 26 people, including children, in the Springvale Commonwealth Bank fire slept in the corner of a share house lounge room.
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CCTV shows moment before Springvale bank fire
Retrieving the accelerant he would use to set himself alight, CCTV from a local cafe shows the alleged arsonist moments before he entered the Springvale Commonwealth Bank. Vision courtesy Seven News, Melbourne.
As investigations continue into the horrific events on Friday, a disturbing picture has begun to emerge of the man allegedly behind the arson attack.
The 21-year-old, known to his friends as Nur Islam, is a Rohingya asylum seeker from Myanmar who has been in Australia since 2013.
Friends and community leaders said he had "struggled mentally" in recent months. Flatmates said he had become increasingly agitated at his inability to access Centrelink payments that he believed were owed to him.
One member of the Rohingya community, Abdul Hamid, said Nur appeared quiet when he recently saw him.
"He wasn't talking too much because of his mental problems," he said.
Mr Hamid was at home when he heard of the attack. "We feel very bad, everyone was very concerned," he said. "About the bank, the injuries and the people."
Mr Islam entered the bank branch on Springvale Road on Friday afternoon, allegedly starting a wild blaze that caused himself and 26 others to be rushed to hospitals across the city.
Two people remain in a critical but stable condition at The Alfred hospital. Their condition had improved slightly by Saturday evening.
Four others were in a stable condition at the same hospital while many of the remaining 21 people injured in the blaze were allowed to go home from the Monash Medical Centre and Dandenong Hospital.
Hospital sources said the scene on Friday had been the biggest test of the city's emergency capability in four years.
Mr Islam had been living in a Springvale share house on a bridging visa and is believed to have spent time on Christmas Island and then at a detention centre in Weipa after attempting to travel to Australia by boat as an unaccompanied minor.
Housemates at the rundown white weatherboard house told The Age that he had moved in about two months ago.
Joseph Joseph, who lives in the house, had first met Nur three years ago in detention.
"We stayed together in the camp one month," Mr Joseph said.
"After that, he is released, I stay in the camp. After release, I came to here [Springvale].
"I meet him a couple of times and he stay in another house. Then two months ago, he have no place to stay and so he talk to me: 'Oh, help me, I have no place to go'.
"Because we are all Burmese people, we are helping him."
But Mr Joseph became concerned when he saw how Mr Islam was acting.
"He [would] talk to himself and then at midnight he [began] walking in here [the backyard]," Mr Joseph said.
"Then he saw some other things like spirits or ghosts. He's saying that he's seeing that."
Mr Joseph said Nur was extremely concerned about money problems related to his sister, who had become sick back in Myanmar.
"He was disappointed about that because he have no money to send to Burma," Mr Joseph said.
"In Burma if you go to hospital you have nothing, it's hard to survive."
As his financial situation worsened, Mr Islam became increasingly agitated about his inability to access Centrelink payments, Mr Joseph said.
"He said, 'Why the government give money to me and the bank not give me," Mr Joseph told The Age.
Community leaders said Mr Islam was in Australia alone and had been struggling both financially and mentally.
It is believed he discovered his welfare payments had been cut off and argued with bank staff before allegedly starting the blaze.
Australian Burmese Rohingya Organisation president Habib Habib said Mr Islam had shared concerns about his immigration status and the safety of his family back home.
"He was struggling mentally for the past year or two because his visa has not been processing," Mr Habib said.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group living in Myanmar and are one of the most persecuted people in the world, according to the United Nations.
Police said on Saturday they were yet to interview the man they believe responsible for the blaze because he was badly burnt in the fire.
The news came as more details poured in from witnesses recounting the "scariest moment" of their lives.
Melbourne mother Phalla Neary Khmer was inside the bank with her three children when the 21-year-old allegedly entered, doused himself in petrol and set both himself and the bank alight.
Ms Khmer said two of her friends managed to escape, but she and her children became trapped inside the bank when its emergency door sealed them and several others inside.
"I really thought I was going to die," she said.
Ms Khmer and others who were trapped inside the bank may owe their lives to emergency services as well as some brave onlookers, including a quick-thinking father of 12 who sprinted down a nearby arcade and charged into the bank's rear entrance to help rush people to safety.
It was there, in a rear laneway, that the father – a New Zealander by the name of Junior Dean – caught the man allegedly responsible for the fire.
Mr Dean grabbed the man's phone and kept him in a corner until police arrived.
He asked him why he had started the blaze.
"He said, 'The bank moved me from here to here and I got sick of it'," Mr Dean said.
"Because the bank gave him the run-around."
Police have commended Mr Dean for his bravery, but he denies he acted heroically.
"I would hope that if that situation happens again – and I hope it doesn't – that others would act in the same way," he said.
"There were babies in there. Elderly were in there. Customers and staff. These are people who have families to go home to."
The Commonwealth Bank said in a statement one of its staff members remained in hospital on Saturday.
The bank has also ramped up security at its nearby branches to put customers and staff at ease.
For help, call Lifeline 131 114, beyondblue 1300 224 636, SuicideLine 1300 651 251 or MensLine 1300 789 978.