Suspicious car fire inside warehouse | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Wanganui firefighters, attending what they thought was a Castlecliff warehouse blaze, were surprised to find a car ablaze inside the building in the early hours of Saturday.

Senior Station Officer Craig Gardiner said that on arrival at the Tod St address, just before 1am, smoke was billowing from the building.

"However, when firefighters got inside they discovered a car was well ablaze and not the building.

"The fire was extinguished and police were called. It is being treated as suspicious and police will be investigating," Mr Gardiner said yesterday.

Meanwhile, two girls had a lucky escape after crashing a car into a power pole in Rapanui Rd at 1.30pm on Saturday.

Mr Gardiner said the Fire Service was called and discovered that live power lines were draped over the vehicle. "The girls managed to climb out but potentially in real danger of being electrocuted.

"In fact, one of the girls appeared to have a burn of some sort and it wasn't immediately apparent whether it was a seatbelt or an electrical burn. Either way, they were very lucky," Mr Gardiner said.