Many stay on despite fatal fire
Many of the backpackers in Childers for the fruit picking season would stay on, despite Friday's fatal hostel fire which killed 15 of their colleagues, local Anglican priest Gavin Talbot said today.

The young backpackers, many from overseas, were trapped when the Palace Backpackers Hostel erupted in flames early on Friday.

Eyewitnesses said the blaze ripped through the 100-year-old heritage-listed former hotel, giving those sleeping in second-storey rooms little chance of escape.

Speaking on the Nine Network's Today show, Mr Talbot said: "Some of the backpackers are leaving today, but many are going back to work ... they're staying with their plans."

He said some had parents coming from overseas.

Childers, a four-hour drive north of Brisbane, is the centre of a rich fruit, vegetable and sugar cane area.

The blaze killed four Australians, four Britons, two from Wales, two from Holland and one each from Ireland, Korea and Japan.

Six bodies have been removed from the charred remains and were stored in a refrigerated mobile unit.

Eventually the bodies will be taken to the John Tong Forensic Science Laboratory in Brisbane for further examination.

Acting Chief Superintendent Ken Benjamin said scientific officers had determined the fatal fire broke out on the ground floor of the hostel.

But he refused to comment on reports of another fire, about an hour earlier, discovered in a wheelie rubbish bin.

That fire was taken outside and extinguished by one of the residents, reports said.

Police want to interview 37-year-old drifter Robert Paul Long about the blaze.

But Superintendent Benjamin also refused to comment on news reports Long was seen in the hostel the night of the fire, or that he had been chased down the street by the hostel proprietors

because of an unpaid bill.