Ashington woman stunned by car fire

Posted by The Journal on Jul 26, 09 11:42 AM in News

Blundering thieves managed to wreck four cars as they tried to hot-wire a vehicle.

The crooks tried to steal the parked vehicle in Newcastle's Central Station car park, but sparks caused a neighbouring car, belonging to a hairdresser and filled with bleach and aerosols, to explode.

Flames quickly engulfed four cars and police and fire crews were called to the scene where they took an hour to bring the blaze under control.

The thieves were caught on CCTV fleeing the scene but dropped a bag as they made their getaway on foot.

Hairdresser Jo Buck was stunned when she returned from London to find her car burnt out and surrounded by police cones. Jo, 36, from Ashington, said: "I left the car in the car park because I was taking the train to London on Tuesday.

"I got back around 7.30 and as I was walking along the platform I just saw cones surrounding my car. I thought someone had reversed into it at first but as I got closer it was black.

"The tyres had just melted to the ground. It was unrecognisable. There were no windows in the back of the car, in fact there was hardly any back on the car. The car next to mine was worse. You would have no idea what colour it was or what make of car it was.

"I was just in complete shock but the station manager came over and explained what had happened.

"The thieves couldn't have chosen a worse car. Because I'm a hairdresser, it was full of aerosols and bleach and it would have gone up like a load of fireworks in the back of my car."

A fire spokesman said: "We attended Central Station car park, on Neville Street, at around 11.25pm on Wednesday, July 22.

"The fire involved four cars and it took us around 50 minutes to control."

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