CCTV footage of the moment a high-performance XR ute was torched beside a Flaxmere family's home early on Friday morning. CCTV / Supplied
Police are investigating the torching of ute just metres from a house in which three people were asleep. It is the second of two near-identical life-threatening incidents in Napier and Hastings in nine days.
The latest was about 1.40am Friday when two people apparently poured an accelerant into a FordFalcon XR6 turbo ute and then set it alight on the front lawn of the home of stockcar and speedway bike racer Michael Patey in Caernarvon Dr, Flaxmere.
Having woken his parents and run outside to turn a high-pressure hose on the fire engulfing his “pride and joy”, he later told Hawke’s Bay Today: “If I didn’t wake up, chances are we could have been killed if the blaze got to the tank.”
The torched ute parked-up after it was set alight on the front lawn of a home in Flaxmere early this morning.
Just after 1.30am on Wednesday, January 24, a Napier couple awoke to discover their car ablaze in their driveway just metres from their house in Venables Ave, Onekawa.
Michael Patey as a 14-year-old solo bike racer. Now his "pride and joy", a Ford XR turbo ute, has been hit by arsonists on the front lawn of his parents' Flaxmere home. Photo / NZME
CCTV images captured Friday’s incident, with two people seen breaking into the ute, apparently pouring-in an accelerant, igniting a flame and then running away, before 31-year-old Patey, a speedway racer since his pre-teens, started fighting the fire with a hose, while his mother called the fire service.
A passing vehicle is seen in the recording moments before the fire started, and police are seeking the driver as a potential witness.
“Luckily” the family had a high-pressure hose and with his experience with higher-performance vehicles Patey was aware of the potential danger.
“The ute also had very high octane fuel in the tank and, a lot of it,” he said.
“If it couldn’t be stopped it would have potentially harmed my family if I didn’t wake them up, so I ran outside, grabbed the fire hose and tried to put it out while my parents rang emergency services.
“My family are well-known Flaxmere residents who have helped many people over the years and for this to happen to me, out of nowhere, it’s making me second-guess somewhere I called home. It could have seriously hurt me and my family. Cars you can replace - family members you can’t.”
While he once had bikes stolen while in Auckland for racing, he hadn’t had an experience like the latest incident, although he is aware of attempted vehicle thefts in the neighbourhood.
Among the worries is that it appeared to be an incident targeting the destruction of a high-performance ute, with no apparent attempt to take the vehicle.
“It was my pride and joy,” he said.
Police said they are making inquiries to identify and find those involved and the vehicle has been towed for a forensic examination.
They said there are positive lines of inquiry into the January 24 incident but no charges had yet been filed, and there is nothing to suggest the two incidents are connected.
“We are not immediately aware of other similar incidents,” a statement said.
