Police are appealing for help from the public as an investigation into a suspicious fire at Wallsend this morning gets underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly before 6am today (Thursday 29 October 2026), emergency services were called to Fogo Street where they found a motorhome \u2013 which was parked on the street \u2013 well alight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers from Newcastle City Police District have been told a member of the public helped rescue a 69-year-old man from the burning vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NSW Ambulance paramedics treated the man for burns before he was taken to hospital where he\u2019s reported to be in a critical condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze; however, the motorhome was destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strike Force Bahl has been established to investigate the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scene of crime officers from Newcastle City PD are being assisted by specialist fire investigators to determine the cause of the blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acting Newcastle City PD commander, Detective Acting Superintendent Steve Benson, said while the inquiry is still in its early stages, the circumstances lead investigators to believe it is suspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evidence gathered so far from the scene leads detectives to believe the caravan was targeted by a person or person unknown,\u201d Det A\/Supt Benson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are appealing for any witnesses to the incident, or anyone with information, and\/or CCTV or dashcam footage, to get in touch with police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also want to recognise the efforts of that member of the public who assisted the injured man from the burning van, despite the risk to their own personal safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the context that we are operating within that leads us to believe this was a targeted arson incident, and there is no direct or ongoing threat to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A strike force has been established to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fire,\u201d Det A\/Supt Benson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police are appealing for help from the public as an investigation into a suspicious fire at Wallsend this morning gets underway. Shortly before 6am today (Thursday 29 October 2026), emergency services were called to Fogo Street where they found a motorhome \u2013 which was parked on the street \u2013 well alight. Officers from Newcastle City … Continue reading “Witnesses sought to suspicious Wallsend fire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41325,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41324\/revisions\/41325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}