Hair Salon, House Gutted in Melbourne Firebomb Attacks

A city has again woken to scorched buildings lined with crime scene tape, as it struggles to stifle a years-long barrage of alleged firebombings.

Firefighters were called to a hair and nail salon on Shuter Street, just doors down from Victorian Labor MP Danny Pearson’s Moonee Ponds office in Melbourne’s inner northwest, about 12:50 a.m. on Oct. 14.

Police spent the morning combing the scene, where a pair of singed jerry cans were propped outside the salon, which police believe were thrown inside before the business was set alight.

The offenders fled in a light coloured vehicle towards Puckle Street, police allege.

About an hour earlier flames engulfed an unoccupied home on Deakin Street in Essendon, about 10 minutes from the salon.

Dozens of firefighters spent more than an hour trying to bring the blaze under control.

The home, which was gutted by the fire, was undergoing renovations.

Investigators were told at least one unknown offender was seen fleeing the scene.

It is too early to determine whether the fires are linked, police said.

A spate of firebombings and arson attacks has swept the city in the past week, the most recent in Fitzroy North on Oct. 12.

Explosions were heard shortly after the tobacco store was set alight by an unknown offender, with a dark coloured car last seen leaving the area.

Police have not confirmed the motive of attack, but are treating the blaze—which damaged another two neighbouring shops in the Melbourne inner-city suburb—as suspicious.

The state has continued to face what authorities say is the fallout from illegal tobacco sales, with a spate of suburban firebombings involving young offenders.

There have been more than 150 tobacco store fires in Victoria since March 2023.

A statewide crackdown saw Victoria Police close 61 stores caught selling illicit tobacco, with alleged links to organised crime, over the past four weeks.

Recent attacks could be linked to these measures, Deakin University criminologist James Martin told AAP on Oct. 12.

“Criminological research shows that violence often increases when you do a law enforcement crackdown, which is kind of counterintuitive,” he said.

By Eleanor Wilson in Melbourne