Firefighters raise car fires alarm with arson attacks putting lives at risk

FRONTLINE firefighters are risking their lives as they attend to more than one deliberately lit car fire a day on average in Tasmania.

A burnt out car on South Arm Highway, Clarendon Vale. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

FRONTLINE firefighters are risking their lives as they attend to more than one deliberately lit car fire a day on average in Tasmania.

After bushfires, burnout cars are the most common blazes Tasmanian Fire Service personnel attend, with up to 400 each year.

Nearly 60 per cent of all car fires are started on purpose, representing the highest proportion of all deliberately lit fires.

Regional fire chief Jeremy Smith said deliberately lit vehicle fires put “firefighters and the community at unnecessary risk”.

“Vehicles have components which can cause explosions and it takes a considerable amount of time to extinguish,’’ Mr Smith said.

“Responding to, and investigating, any deliberately lit fire diverts valuable emergency services resources away from other incidents.”

The TFS attends between 500 and 700 car fires across the state each year.

Burnt out cars in Rokeby.

Last year, 20 per cent of all fires in Tasmania were car fires compared with rubbish (16 per cent) and house fires (6 per cent).

“No community is immune to vehicle fires and we respond to vehicle fires in a widespread number of areas across the state,” Mr Smith said.

Despite the frequency of these fires, people who torch cars are rarely brought to justice.

A Mercury analysis of sentencing data stretching almost a decade shows less than 150 perpetrators of deliberately lit car fires were convicted in the Supreme Court.

Based on TFS estimates, about 3700 cars were deliberately set on fire during that period, resulting in a conviction rate of less than 5 per cent.

Many of the cases that come before the courts involve the deliberate burning of cars to destroy DNA evidence.

A recent TFS and Tasmania Police investigation into arson revealed a pattern where cars were being set on fire immediately before another car was stolen in the same suburb.

The probe revealed that drug couriers were torching vehicles after they delivered narcotics to destroy evidence, and then stealing another car to perform another drop-off.

‘Responding to, and investigating, any deliberately lit fire diverts valuable emergency services resources away from other incidents’ – Regional fire chief Jeremy Smith

While car fires are often limited to a few thousand dollars damage, sometimes the fallout can be catastrophic.

MORE: FIRE RUINS DREAM FOR CLAREMONT BAKERY COUPLE

Small-business owners Jaycob and Elspeth Barry had their Claremont bakery burnt to the ground last month.

Jaycob and Elspeth Barry had their business burnt to ground after a stolen car was set alight and it rolled into the building.

The fire started after a stolen car, which had been set alight, rolled into the business spreading an inferno.

“We’ve lost all our wholesale customers, we’ve lost our regular customers, we haven’t earned any income … it’s been a pretty stressful time,” Mr Barry said.

He believed it would be another fortnight before the business could reopen.

In a similar incident in Glenorchy on Monday, a car that had been stolen and then torched rolled down a hill and on to a property, where it collapsed part of a woman’s home.

MORE: STOLEN CAR SET ON FIRE AND HITS HOUSE

Originally published as Firefighters raise car fires alarm with arson attacks putting lives at risk