Police release CCTV of Sydney house allegedly being set on fire ‘in a case of mistaken identity’
CCTV of an allegedly deliberately lit house fire in Sydney’s west that injured two people has been released by arson detectives as they appeal for public help to identify the culprits.
The video footage made public on Monday shows two hooded figures leaping out of a car in Fairfield West before entering the front yard of a house carrying two red containers.
Shortly after, the yard erupts in flames and the two figures run from the house. They flee the scene in a white Honda HR-V with damage to the bumper bar on the back left-hand side, New South Wales police said in a statement.
Firefighters were called to King Street shortly after 2am on Saturday 23 March. They extinguished the blaze but it had destroyed the property.
A 28-year-old man and 33-year-old woman were awoken by the fire and fled the burning house, authorities said.
They sustained second- and third-degree burns to their hands and lower bodies and were taken to hospital in a serious condition. The pair have since been released from hospital.
The fire was deliberately lit, police suspect.
“However, as the occupants of the home had only moved into the house less than a year ago, it is believed they were targeted in a case of mistaken identity,” the force said in a statement on Monday.
