A factory fire in Keilor East that caused $3 million in damage and created so much smoke it affected traffic on the Western Ring Road and Calder Freeway is being treated as suspicious.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade has handed the investigation into the cause of the fire, which tore through a shed in Thor Court last Wednesday, to arson chemists and detectives from the Brimbank Crime Investigation Unit.
Detective Senior-Constable Patrick Stephensen said there were “suspicious circumstances” surrounding the fire.
“We’re in the very early stages of the investigation,” he said. “In relation to how the fire started, it seems it was deliberately lit.”
The blaze took 60 firefighters three hours to control after it broke out at Metro Drains, on the southern side of Keilor Cemetery, soon after 4am.
Huge plumes of smoke were blown across two major freeways and into the Melbourne Airport flight path.
MFB officer-in-charge Costa Katsikis said smoke and flames could be seen a kilometre away from the fire, which was well alight at one end of the factory when firefighters arrived.
Metro Drains owner Heath Peatling told Nine News Melbourne he was just weeks away from relocating after 15 years at the Thor Court property.
“I’m a bit disappointed – we were just about to move out and we’ve got a lot of money invested in the place,” he said. “It’s more the inconvenience. We’ve just got to see what happens.”
