A fire which damaged neighbouring homes in Huddersfield is estimated to have caused £30,000 worth of damage to three cars.
Burning mattresses and rubbish outside a block of six homes in Lower Fitzwilliam Street spread flames to three used cars in a compound just feet away from the back of the houses.
The cars – a Mitsubishi Warrior, an Alfa Romeo and a Nissan Note – belong to Pentagon Huddersfield Nissan which rents the fenced-off compound from landlord Barry Sykes, who also owns the houses.
A fire crew from Dewsbury were called around 10.30am on Tuesday. They put out the blaze which caused extensive damage to one home and less serious damage to the other.
Matthew Palmer, dealer principal at the Nissan dealership in nearby Northgate, said he looked out of his office window and saw the smoke and rushed out to help.
When he got there with keys to the cars someone had tried to tackle the blazing mattresses but only succeeded in dragging the blazing material against the cars, causing them to catch fire.
“The cost of the damage is between £25,000 and £30,000,” he said. “Once fire and smoke get into cars it’s not good for the electrics.
“We’ve rented the compound from Barry for about three-and-a-half-years now and we’ve never had a minute’s trouble – until now.
“We had about 15 cars in the compound and normally we have double that number.”
Fire investigators are still trying to determine whether the cause of the fire was accidental or deliberate.
Crew commander Stephen Carruthers, of Dewsbury Fire Station, said: “We are still looking into what caused the fire.
“Rubbish including some mattresses was on fire when we arrived.
“Smoke alarms went off and we will be visiting properties in the area telling people about fire prevention.”
