Sydney car fire serves as costly warning

A SINGLE cigarette may have cost Sydney families tens of thousands of dollars, since many of the cars incinerated in a freak blaze were uninsured.

Police are reviewing CCTV footage as they investigate the cause of a fire on Sunday that tore through the Sydney Aquatic Centre car park, destroying 47 cars, damaging another 33 and forcing mass evacuations.

Firefighters say the conditions were horrendous with temperatures of 36 degrees, five per cent humidity and winds gusting to 70km/h.

"In 42 years, I've never seen fire moving through cars like this," NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner Greg Mullins told reporters on Monday.

"The fire was leaping from car to car, being driven by the wind.

"It was quite random, there was no visibility here. Thick black smoke, towering flames, incredible heat."

He said investigators' "strong speculation" was that an errant cigarette butt sparked the blaze.

It's believed a smoker may have thrown a smouldering cigarette onto the tinder-dry grass in the parking lot, despite a total fire ban in place across the state.

An NRMA Insurance spokeswoman said the extent of the damage was not yet known because many drivers were yet to regain access to their cars.

"We're currently working with our impacted customers to give them the support they need," she said.

But a number of uninsured car owners have already emerged.

Idesa Vincent from the Ryde-Carlile swimming club, which was holding its annual meet at the centre, lost her car.

"The alarms went, they were basically herding us out of the front entrance as quickly as possible. They got everyone outside and across the road. The police were on hand straight away," she told the ABC.

Ms Vincent said she could hear what sounded like explosions and quickly realised her car - which only had third party insurance - would not escape unscathed.

"I don't even want to think about that part," she said.

Another unlucky motorist, Vahid Noshahr, told News Corp Australia his uninsured 2008 Toyota was destroyed.

"It's terrible. It is a new car. I had been saving up and only bought it last year," he said.

"It cost me $10,000 and I cancelled the insurance because I was going to sell it."

The Insurance Council of Australia has urged people affected by the Homebush fire to get in touch with their insurers.

Depending on their policy, some may be covered for the fire even if they did not have comprehensive car insurance.

"Each insurer's policy is different and has its own terms and conditions," a spokeswoman said.

Mr Mullins said authorities were frustrated that individual smokers continued to flout warnings not to throw away still-lit butts, even on extreme fire danger days.

"It's just stupid," he said.

"The median strip fires that we regularly have on bad hot windy days, they're all caused by cigarette butts."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Sydney car fire serves as costly warning

Dengan url

http://flasdiskvirus.blogspot.com/2013/10/sydney-car-fire-serves-as-costly-warning.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Sydney car fire serves as costly warning

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Sydney car fire serves as costly warning

sebagai sumbernya