Squatters are smoked out
A HOUSE believed to have been a squatters’ haven has been destroyed by a ferocious fire.
Police arrested a 17-yearold who was seen running from the blaze on the corner of North and Norman streets and were still hunting two other teens yesterday.
Neighbours, who did not want to be named, told the Bulletin the home had been a squatters’ paradise, with some crossing the street to avoid walking near the building.
Several witnesses who lived nearby said there were always funny smells coming from the building, believing it to be a makeshift drug lab.
Others said it was a relief to see the house destroyed after being harassed and annoyed by the people coming to and going from the dilapidated building.
Fire investigators were combing through the ruins to determine the cause.
Police district duty officer Brett MacGibbon said officers arrested a teenager seen running from the building and were searching for two others.
“There were initial indications that there may have perhaps been a couple of people that were unaccounted for,” Senior Sergeant MacGibbon said.
“At this stage our investigations are centring on a couple of juveniles that were seen leaving the house, just prior to it catching on fire.
“One of those (juveniles) we have in our custody, he is assisting us further with inquiries … there are indications that he may have disposed of a lighter, which has been recovered.
“We believe two of the people that were seen leaving the house were the ones initially unaccounted for.”
He said the home was known to police as a spot for squatters.
“We have been here a number of times in terms of vagrants sleeping in the place, using it as a squat. It has been unoccupied for some time.”
A witness, Kelly Collins, said she saw the house go up in flames.
“We were waiting in traffic and we saw smoke coming out of the windows and we looked at the house and thought that place is on fire,” Ms Collins said.
“And then we saw someone calling the fire brigade, then a couple of minutes later, smoke started pouring out and then flames, just everywhere.
“It literally went up in a few minutes.”
Queensland Fire and Emergency Service Inspector Dean Tucker said they had been to the Norman St house a number of times, but this time could not save it.
“We have had numerous calls to this and another one on Norman St,” Insp Tucker said.
“On arrival we had a fully involved structural fire, with persons reported missing. This is a vagrant home that has some vagrant people using it for sleeping and we had four people missing within the house.
“We went into rescue mode after getting some water on to the fire, so that we could at least get into the bottom floor to do a primary search and ensure all persons were accounted for.”
He said it was an extremely dangerous fire to put out, with investigators searching for the cause of the blaze.
“It’s an old structural building, it’s high, had a lot of fuel load and we were getting structural collapse from the start.
“We had a couple of fire fighters, on the initial response, working very hard, had some heart rates up over 200.”