Residents describe ‘tornado of smoke’ coming from suspicious house fire at Davoren Park
Davoren Park residents have described seeing a “tornado of smoke” coming from a cluttered house on Saturday morning, as police investigate the suspicious fire.
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Residents of a Davoren Park street saw a “tornado of smoke” as a cluttered house went up in flames early on Saturday morning — a fire police believe was deliberately lit.
The blaze broke out at the home on Hambridge Rd just before 5am and took a team of 24 fire fighters half an hour to contain.
Resident Shannon Stephan woke up to find the house opposite his “fully engulfed”.
He said residents at the property could usually be heard working with power tools in the early hours of the morning.
“I got to my window expecting to yell out ‘shut up and be quiet’, because it was the first thing in the morning, then I realised the porch was engulfed.”
The flames threatened to spread to a property next door, but firefighters doused the blaze just in time.
Mr Stephan’s wife Jessica said “there was a lot of smoke” drifting across the suburb and that the burning house belonged to a “scrap collector”.
“It was dark and you could see a tornado of smoke going above the house, that’s just how much there was,” she said.
The couple came outside to watch the fire from their front porch.
“At the start, you could feel the heat of it; I wasn’t exactly cold standing in my front yard in the morning,” Mr Stephan said.
“It could have been worse with all the bushes (that) they (have) got in the front yard, it could easily have hopped to the next house.”
Firefighting efforts were significantly hampered due to clutter stored in and around the house, but no one was inside at the time.
SA Police detectives are investigating the fire, which they say is suspicious.
The damage bill is estimated at $250,000.
It was the second suspicious blaze to happen in the northern suburbs in less than 30 minutes.
About 4.30am, a fire was deliberately lit in the stairwell of an apartment complex on Main North Road at Elizabeth, causing about $20,000.
And, about 2.30am, a shed was destroyed in an accidental fire on Verbener Road, Parafield Gardens.
On Saturday night, about 11.30pm, a stone cottage on Campion Road at Marrabel was destroyed by a separate fire. No one was inside at the time.