Two people fled their burning home in Melbourne’s north early on Wednesday morning after a car rammed into an adjoining shop and was set alight.
Neighbours scrambled to wake the man and woman after a Meadow Heights milk bar was rammed with a ute and torched shortly before 1am.
A milk bar in Meadow Heights was torched in a ram-raid firebombing shortly before 1am.Credit: Nine News
Volkan Sahinkaya, who lives nearby, said he ran outside after he heard a “big bang” and saw a car speed away. He then heard another explosion and spotted smoke rising from the milk bar on Magnolia Boulevard as another neighbour ran outside.
“We were just screaming to each other: ‘There’s people in the back!’” Sahinkaya said. The neighbours rushed to alert those inside, but initially heard nothing.
“So we eventually start kicking the door down ...” Sahinkaya told The Age. “By that time, they woke up and opened the door. They didn’t know what was happening.”
In a statement, Victoria Police said two men were seen trying to douse a Ford Ranger with liquid after it was crashed into the shop. “A man and woman who live in a residence attached to the milk bar luckily weren’t injured,” they said.
Volkan Sahinkaya, a Meadow Heights resident who helped get two occupants out of a firebombed tobacco shop on Wednesday.Credit: Nine News
Just hours later, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Campbellfield was set ablaze for the second time this year.
Firefighters found the Al Marjan Restaurant on the Hume Highway “well alight” shortly before 4.30am. Fire Rescue Victoria said the fire took 30 minutes to control and triggered a community advice message.
“The restaurant has been extensively damaged, but firefighters were able to stop the fire from spreading to an adjoining car wash,” FRV said. The same shop was firebombed days before it opened in May.
Both fires have been deemed suspicious and Victoria Police are investigating.
Sahinkaya, the neighbour who helped rescue two people from the burning Meadow Heights milk bar, said the firebombings of small tobacco and convenience shops was “shocking” and had caused several to close in his suburb over the past year.
After the close call on Wednesday morning, he said he was concerned someone would soon be seriously injured.
“It’s real scary; because these guys obviously don’t give a shit of who’s around, what’s around. They don’t care about families – about anything,” he said.
“They’ve got to do something about it before it gets too wild. Otherwise, we’re going to end up like America.”
A Ford Ranger rammed the front of a Meadow Heights milk bar on Wednesday morning.Credit: Nine News
An underworld fight for control of Melbourne’s lucrative illicit tobacco market has led to more than 100 arson attacks over the past 18 months. Last year, Victoria Police created a dedicated taskforce to tackle the escalating feud, which has been linked to two assassinations.
The Victorian government, which pledged in March to implement a long-awaited tobacco licensing scheme this year to help stem the illegal market, is yet to introduce the legislation to parliament.
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