A giant plume of black smoke billowed over the Perth suburb of Bibra Lake on Friday night as a blaze engulfed cars at a Pickles auction yard.
The fire destroyed 60 salvage vehicles and associated racking, in addition to residual damage to vehicles immediately surrounding the blaze.
Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) and the police arson squad were on the scene on Saturday investigating the cause of the fire, which broke out just after 5pm local time Friday.
Fire at Pickles Auction this evening. Was a wild sight! Amazing effort to fire fighters tackling the beast to get the out of control under control @abcnews @perthnow @9NewsPerth @7NewsPerth @abcperth pic.twitter.com/d8H0cjYqBM
— jacey knowles (@JaceyKnowles) April 28, 2023
The fire was contained to one area of the storage yard, with no damage to warehouse facilities or offices, and no injuries, Pickles said in a statement.
Pickles is one of the biggest companies in Australia remarketing vehicles, with federal, state and local governments among the privately owned company’s major clients.
Jacey Knowles, who lives around the corner from the Bibra Lake branch, said she was alerted to the blaze when her two-year-old border collie, Basil, started barking.
Knowles and her husband jumped in their car and drove towards the looming plume of smoke. The pair could hear sirens, see helicopters in the air and arrived on the scene to see cars disintegrating in the inferno.
“The sound was crazy. It was like something out of an action film with the sparks flying from the batteries exploding, doors falling off.”
Even though Knowles was far away from the fire, the heat was intense, she said, and warmed up the entire suburb for the night.
The smell of burnt rubber was also pungent, and Knowles soon left the scene due to concern for toxic fumes in the air.
“It’s one of those bizarre experiences where you can’t look away, but you know it’s kind of tragic. I’m just glad that nobody got hurt,” Knowles said.
Knowles said the suburb still smelled of smoke on Saturday morning.
A Pickles spokesperson said operations had not been affected and that the Bibra Lake branch was back to “business as usual” on Saturday.
The company said it was grateful to the Cockburn Central and Murdoch fire stations for their swift response.
The DFES said 15 fire trucks from seven different stations attended the scene.
