A TIGHT-knit Melbourne community has asked the public to pray for a man who returned from overseas to find his two boys and their mother had been killed in a house fire. "His grief is just beyond words," Sister Mary Margaret of the Catholic Church of St Peter told reporters. "If you can just remember him in your prayers, that's all we can ask." Philip George had been visiting relatives in India when a fire at a Clayton South home in the city's south killed his two sons, Mathew, 5, and Philip, 9, and their mother Anita, 37. Detectives from the state's arson squad met Mr George at the airport this morning to inform him of their deaths. Mr George later visited the destroyed house and was comforted by loved ones and neighbours. "I don't know how you recover some something like this," said one neighbour, who brought flowers. A note had been found during a police search of the property, and it had been reportedly left on a car in the driveway. Police won't reveal the contents of the note but detectives have not eliminated murder-suicide as an explanation for the tragedy. Neighbours had been awoken by the sounds of banging and screams yesterday morning. Mina Tranfaglia said her son and another neighbour attempted to rescue the mother through a bedroom window. "He tried to break the window to let her out," she said. A cause of the blaze had not been established. Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 .
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