Crime scene declared at site of suspicious house fire
Fire investigators are this morning searching for clues among ashes of a fire that tore through a Portsmith house in the early hours of Tuesday morning. What we know so far.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A crime scene has been declared by Cairns police at the site of an early morning house fire in Portsmith.
Cairns Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB) detectives are investigating a fire that engulfed a house on Hartley St at about 2.30am.
The home was fully ablaze before Queensland Fire and Emergency Services extinguished the fire and a crime scene was declared at 3.13am.
A QFES spokesman said five fire vehicles attended the scene and the house was well involved when the first crews arrived on scene.
Crews reported that a man was taken to Cairns Hospital by ambulance.
Hartley St resident Geoff said he was woken by a man wearing nothing but a towel screaming and trying to put the fire out with a garden hose.
“He seems to have made a genuine attempt to put out the fire,” he said.
“He was crying out, ‘this is all my dreams and now it’s all gone,’ it was his howling that woke me up.
“A firefighter I spoke to commented that it was the hottest fire he had been to in a while.”
Police stated fire scene examiners were on the ground soon after daybreak on Tuesday searching for clues among the ashes.
Acting senior constable Gwynevere Cooper said the fire was being treated as suspicious.
“We are treating it as suspicious at this stage, obviously we can’t rule out otherwise, but we treat it as suspicious until we find out otherwise,” she said.
“We do have a 30-year-old man who’s assisting us with our inquiries, but he was transported to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
“We believe him to be the occupant of the house.”
Anyone in the area at the time is urged to come forward and contact police.
“We’re appealing for witnesses that were in the area at the time if they have dashcam of before, during or after 2.30am this morning,” Act Snr const Cooper said.
“There may have been a person on a bike and another person in a utility who may be able to assist us with our inquiries.
“So we do urge those people to come forward.”
Anyone with information about the fire is urged to contact police and quote this incident number: QP2301433035
More Coverage
Originally published as Crime scene declared at site of suspicious house fire
Man struck and killed by car
Part of a major highway remains shut and a man has died following a vehicle and pedestrian crash, shortly after 1pm on Thursday. Warning: Distressing images.
Read more
UPDATE: Fire warning declared for Tablelands
The Queensland Fire Department has issued a stay informed warning for Mount Garnet after containing a large fire travelling along the Kennedy Highway on Thursday afternoon, however not all residents will be able to return home.
Read more