Luke Drenth: Preston fire in High St apartment ends in dramatic arrest
A man has allegedly thrown burning objects out of his Preston apartment window, creating a rooftop fire, before throwing pieces of furniture at fireys and police officers — hitting one in the head with a printer — as they rushed to put out a blaze in his room.
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A man allegedly set fire to a Preston apartment building before he attacked the firefighters and police who rushed to help, lunging at them with a knife.
It took more than two hours for the hazardous situation to be brought under control, with specialist police forced to get Luke Drenth out of the wreckage.
The 32-year-old fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, October 8, to apply for bail, with police arguing he was an unacceptable risk to public safety.
Senior Constable Jaclyn Smith said a “major catastrophic event” was only narrowly avoided due to Drenth’s “extreme and dangerous behaviour”.
Emergency services were called to the High St apartment building just before 9am on August 12 after Drenth’s neighbour allegedly saw him throwing burning objects, including pieces of a guitar, out his window.
The witness allegedly watched as two small fires on a nearby rooftop merged.
The MFB extinguished the fire on the roof then forced their way into Drenth’s apartment, with smoke coming from a bedroom where Drenth was holed up.
They allegedly found the bedroom door barricaded shut and forced it open enough to stick a hose in and extinguish the fire.
The court heard Drenth then began throwing large objects and pieces of furniture at the firefighters and police, hitting an officer in the head with a printer.
Police sprayed OC foam at Drenth, but it allegedly had no effect on him, and he threw it back onto police.
He allegedly then ran towards the officers holding a knife and lunged at one, who pulled out his gun.
Police then left the apartment and the Critical Incident Response Team had to get onto the roof and negotiate with Drenth.
The court heard it appeared Drenth had also allegedly tried to damage the gas pipe line with a shovel, and that about $50,000 damage was caused to the building.
Senior Constable Smith said Drenth’s actions could have led to a much bigger fire in the high density apartment area, a gas explosion or him being killed by police.
Magistrate Jennifer Tregent said the situation could easily have escalated.
“He’s lucky he wasn’t shot dead,” she said,
The court heard police believed the incident was caused by a drug-induced mental state.
Lawyer Manny Nicolosi said his client had suffered a mental health episode, and had been put on medication in custody for the first time ever.
He said Drenth had worked as a structure engineering draftsman for almost six years until he lost his job because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms Tregent said “no doubt” substance abuse was involved with the incident, but agreed to bail Drenth to live with his parents in Macleod.
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