About 70 cars have been set on fire in northern Brisbane as a minor bushfire fanned by strong winds jumped a fence into an auction yard.
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Superintendent Wayne Halverson said they suspected the fire at Geebung was deliberately lit.
"The damage is fairly extensive. It started in the bushland adjacent to Pickles Auctions and that fire in the bushland then jumped over the fence and spread to the cars, which were parked in this yard," Superintendent Halverson said.
"There were about 70 cars involved — that does sound quite serious but there are 1,750 cars actually parked inside the premises.
"The wind has pushed it from the bushland over the fence and into the car park.
"We don't know the exact cause but there's obviously no dry lightning strikes at the moment so there has been a bit of human intervention there somewhere for it to have initially kicked off … probably [with] consequences far more severe than what the people originally would have thought."
He said two firefighters just managed to scramble out of the way when a tree branch fell where they were standing.
"We did have one firefighter transported to hospital with heat exhaustion, but it could have been a lot worse if the branch had landed on top of the other two firefighters," he said.
Several houses were located close to the Pickles yard, but Superintendent Halverson said the wind direction kept the flames away from the properties.
"We don't like losing property either way, but at least we didn't have humans to worry about in the car park, whereas if it had have gone back toward the homes we would have had the problem of residents inside houses which would have been a whole new concern."
Police will investigate in a bid to track down whoever might have lit the blaze.
Superintendent Halverson said Brisbane's fire stations had been lending support to colleagues fighting bushfires around the region, but that it was not surprising to have a fire in Brisbane in hot, dry and windy conditions.
