Arson detectives have found the ignition point of a suspicious fire that tore through suburbs destroying one home and several cars.
Hundreds of people fled their homes in Geraldton, in Western Australia’s Mid West about 420km north of Perth, as an out of control bushfire burned dangerously close to homes earlier this week.
Emergency services were alerted to the fire burning in bushland in the city’s north about 2.20pm on Friday.
It was contained but reignited and rapidly spread across several suburbs on Sunday, destroying one home and endangering lives and property with several areas evacuated.
About 5.20am on Monday, the fire was being fuelled by strong and swirly, easterly wind gusts up to 80km/h.
Residents fled their homes, schools closed and thousands were without power as the “dangerous” bushfire continued.
Strike Force Vulcan officers examined the fire scene and were able to identify the ignition point in bushland on Tuesday.
“The cause of the ignition is being treated as suspicious,” a police spokesman said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Chris De Bruin told 6PR the fire started near a golf course on Heal St in Geraldton.
“Because of the prevailing wind and weather conditions it actually popped over the river,” he said.
“We know some sort of human activity was involved in the initial mission point.
“We’ve got a number of witnesses that still need to be interviewed, but it’s an area well known that children are playing.
“We’re not saying it is children, but we just know that somebody has done something in that area to start the fire and investigations are still ongoing.”
A bushfire warning has been downgraded to an advice as fire crews from across the state worked to mop up the blaze and patrol the area for further outbreaks.
About 17 homes and businesses remain without power after electricity was cut to more than 3000 properties during the height of the emergency.
Incident controller Brent Allen said firefighters went from home to house in the early part of the blaze to extinguish fires in people’s backyards.
“We had firefighters working in backyards, having to push down fences to get into structures.” he said.
“It’s run right up to structures and a school, there were fires in the gardens around the school.
“If we had a limited firefighting response, then 600 houses could have been directly impacted and potentially the fire could have kept running to the north and impacted homes as far as … about 12km to the north.”
More than 100 career and volunteer firefighters from across WA helped bring the blaze under control.
Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said additional resources travelled from Perth to give firefighters from Geraldton a break after they worked tirelessly for three days to battle the blaze.
Emergency Service Minister Paul Papalia said it was appalling behaviour for anyone to deliberately light a fire and those responsible would be found and prosecuted.
Police have urged anyone who saw suspicious activity in the vicinity of Heal Place, Green St and Tappak St on Friday afternoon to contact Crime Stoppers.
Anyone will CCTV or footage of any suspicious activity in the area of the fire is asked to upload the vision to police.
Rewards up to $25,000 have been offered for information that leads to the identification and conviction of an arsonist.
