Hartlepool Car Fires

Police are investigating a series of car fires overnight on August 17-18.

Transcript

00:00 in Baden Street and with Katie whose car was set on fire last night. Do you know what happened

00:04 Katie? Not roughly, no. All I can remember from about half past one this morning just

00:10 seeing orange blaze everywhere outside the window, just hearing neighbours scream get

00:16 out of the house, get out of the house. Couldn't get out of the house, we were fighting against

00:20 black smoke to get down the stairs. We managed to get out of the house through the back door

00:26 by the back lane and then down onto this street to see our car just in flames. So do you think

00:33 you were singularly targeted or do you think it was just something happened out of the town? It

00:37 was just someone going on a rampage, we just wanted to torture some cars and get some joy out of it

00:43 but the guy doesn't realise how many lives he's wrecked. He's stopped people from going to work,

00:50 going to hospital, apartments. It's just shocking. What would you say to anybody who may have some

00:57 information about this? Just please reach out to Cleveland Police. Okay Jonathan, so what have you

01:04 heard about these incidents? Well obviously it's a really terrible incident taking place overnight,

01:09 not just here but on several streets here in the town centre and Hartlepool. Enough is really

01:14 enough. You know people are living scared in their own homes by this sort of lawless crime and

01:18 anti-social behaviour. I've been in touch with the police this morning, CID have taken over the

01:22 investigation. There will be extra patrols tonight and through the weekend to try and make sure

01:27 there's no repeat of this but we need these people caught, we need them put in jail and kept away

01:32 from civilised society because people have a right to feel safe and this sort of incident is doing

01:36 the exact opposite of that. What we need to see now is the results to make sure there's no repeat

01:42 of these incidents tonight and into the weekend and fundamentally we need these people caught

01:47 and brought to justice so that people can feel safe. Have you spoken to residents about what

01:51 they're saying about this? I've spoken to a couple of residents this morning already, yes I've been

01:55 down here. Look, people are shocked, it's understandable that they're shocked and what

01:59 our job as politicians, working with the police and with our fire service is to reassure them that

02:04 we are working to try and solve these issues.