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.

Officers investigate probe the cause of a fire that destroyed a brick house in Bungalow on Tuesday morning. Picture: Peter Carruthers

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 house on Hartley St Bungalow was destroyed by fire on Tuesday, August 29. Picture: Geoff Parris

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 on scene at the brick house on Hartley St on Tuesday morning. Picture: Peter Carruthers

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.

Cairns CIB have begun an investigation into a house fire at Hartley St, Bungalow that gutted the top floor of the two storey dwelling. Picture: Peter Carruthers

“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

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Originally published as Crime scene declared at site of suspicious house fire