ARSONISTS are believed to be responsible for a fire that destroyed 20 cars at an abandoned car yard in Sunshine North early on Sunday morning.
Police and firefighters were called to the Bunnett St address about 2.45am after a fire, which police believe was deliberately lit, threatened to engulf the entire car yard.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) operations commander from Sunshine David Youssef said up to six MFB units from Sunshine, Keilor, St Albans and Deer Park attended the scene.
He said firefighters brought the blaze under control in about half-an-hour.
Mr Youssef estimated there were about 40 abandoned cars on the property at the time, around half of which were destroyed by the fire.
“When firefighters first arrived on scene they found probably around 10 cars on fire, and the fire was spreading very rapidly to the remainder of the vehicles,” he said.
He said the blaze firefighters were forced to wear breathing equipment to deal with the thick black smoke, although he said no residences in the area were affected.
A Victoria Police Media spokeswoman told Star that police and detectives from Sunshine were investigating the fire as “suspicious”.
