Morley shopping centre fire: Bizarre CCTV error which led police to mistakenly believe fire was suspicious

Police Minister Reece Whitby has revealed police originally mistook the reflection of a car’s windscreen for a Molotov cocktail while reviewing CCTV, leading officers to initially deem a fire which gutted a Morley shopping centre as suspicious. Almost a dozen businesses — most of which are family-owned — were destroyed in the blaze at Bishop Street in Morley, directly across from the Galleria shopping centre, about 12.40am on Wednesday. The fire incinerated about 5000sqm of property, ravaging businesses including including T4 bubble tea, Monte Carlo barber, Far East Imports Asian grocery store, HY mobile phone repairs and May Beauty. The blaze contained and controlled by 8am and no one was injured. Early in the investigation, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said officers had obtained CCTV footage that suggested the blaze was started by a firebug, but police later said the fire had been deemed non-suspicious. “The arson squad are down there, we are officially on the hunt for that person or persons who are responsible,” he told ABC Radio. But late on Wednesday afternoon a police spokeswoman backtracked, saying no criminality had been detected. “It was a reflection from a passing vehicle that threw light on the building, and initially that was thought to represent the flash of a molotov cocktail,” he said. “Investigators are human, they make a preliminary assumption of what they see, they do further investigation. “They realised there was an explanation for that flash of light, it was a reflection of the car windscreen and so they’ve gone further and made sure that their analysis is correct.” Mr Whitby said investigators ultimately got to the right conclusion. “I understand that there was initially some viewing, some very early viewing of some CCTV footage which needed further investigation,” he said. “The inference that early investigators got was that it was suspicious but then on further investigation of that vision they realised that there was not an issue there.” The fire left a number of business owners devastated. Bishop Street Newsagency’s Peter Nguyen said the inferno had destroyed his store. “We have been in business here for 20 years and have lost everything in this disaster,” he said in a social media post. Alice, whose mother has owned May Beauty for the past three years, said she received the devastating news about 3am on Wednesday. “I’m really saddened . . . I want to find out who did this,” she said. “Hopefully locals will continue to support us when we reopen.”