Cairns stolen cars: Vehicles lit on fire at Westcourt and Earlville

Residents reported hearing loud sounds across two Cairns suburbs after separate stolen cars were allegedly torched. This is what happened.

Residents reported hearing explosions across two Cairns suburbs after separate stolen cars were lit on fire around the same time.

Westcourt resident Humphrey Hollins said he woke up to a really loud sound on Tuesday about 4.30am.

“I heard the explosion, I thought it was a truck dropping a bin,” he said.

“I thought I saw truck headlights, it was the car on fire.”

CCTV footage of one of the cars involved at the Westcourt explosion. Picture: Humphrey Hollins.

The fire occurred in a laneway off Mulgrave Road and Earl Street at Westcourt.

Mr Hollins said he checked his CCTV footage and saw what had happened.

“I have a couple of screenshots of the two cars that were with the car that were burnt. They came in with the CRV, they parked the CRV right at the end,” he said.

“They torched it through the back window, within a couple of minutes, kaboom.

“They first dropped the torches through the back windows at about 4.26am and it was still burning fiercely at 4.45am.”

Car on fire at Earlville. Picture: Cairns Crimes and Alerts Facebook Page, Karen Cross.

Mr Hollins said it was a real surprise.

“We’ve had a lot of stolen cars whizzing around, the cars are often around the Spotlight. They whiz around here often,” he said.

“I had never heard of it (car fires) before.”

Mr Hollins said it could’ve ended in a totally different way.

“It strikes me as odd, it was highly dangerous, it was parked against the steel fence, if it was parked against the timber fence it all would’ve gone up,” he said.

Car after it had been lit on fire at Balaclava Road. Picture: Cairns Crimes and Alerts Facebook Page, Tarryn Young

“It could’ve been an incredible disaster. We are incredibly lucky. The building would have had to be evacuated for sure.”

A police spokeswoman confirmed the red Honda CRV was allegedly stolen.

In a separate incident police confirmed a stolen Mitsubishi Triton was set on fire about 4.30am on Tuesday near Mestrez Street at Earlville.

The spokeswoman said no one had been charged for either incidents but investigations were ongoing.

A Queensland Fire and Emergency spokesman confirmed there was a fire at 7am on Balaclava Road, Earlville.

Detective acting inspector Jason Chetham said four burnt-out vehicles were recovered in the last month.

“We certainly feel this particular type of offence is being committed by a small group of offenders,” he said.

“That’s along the line of three of the vehicles being located on the one day.

“Burnt-out vehicles are not a common occurrence in the greater Cairns area, so we will continue to monitor that.”

Act Det Insp Chetham said in the last month 49 people were charged on 149 property related offences. 33 were juvenile offenders and 16 adults.

Originally published as Cairns stolen cars: Vehicles lit on fire at Westcourt and Earlville