CCTV footage has revealed a group with torches outside a unit as it burst into flames and exploded at 16 Stud Road, Dandenong early on Friday 6 June.
The unit, which has been home to notoriously violent and terrifying behaviour for more than a year, was consumed in a fireball about 2.45am.
The fire spread through the roof and appears to have gutted the unit and damaged an adjoining flat.
So intense were the flames that embers showered neighbouring properties 20 metres away, and the tops of nearby cypress trees were singed.
Nearby CCTV depicts at least three people in hoodies and backpacks, suspiciously shining torches outside the unit at the time. They had fled by the time a fireball exploded from the unit.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control by 3am.
No one was reportedly injured.
Darrell, who lives about 20 metres away from the block of units, said he saw a “massive spray of flames and embers” over his property.
“It was like a flame-thrower.”
Shortly before the fire, he awoke to a female’s screams as two males and a female fought outside.
“It’s normal so I didn’t even bother looking out the window.
“Then I heard someone shouting: ‘Get out, get out’.”
The tops of tall cypress trees on the destroyed unit’s neighbouring boundary were even charred, says another neighbour.
“It was a big, big, big fire. It was like a small explosion”
As reported by Star Journal last year, large groups have long terrified neighbours with constant fighting, blood-curdling screams, loud music and drug-dealing by large groups.
Without provocation, neighbours were chased into their unit by a woman who then smashed five of their windows with a plank and a brick.
Another was reportedly chased across Stud Road by a male armed with a cleaver and a hammer.
Darrell says police are attending the flat on a weekly basis
“We’ve had a lot of sleepless nights. There’s violence every night and sometimes during the day.
“Gangs come around, there’s fights with sticks, bashings, furniture thrown out on the driveway.
“All the neighbouring units have bars on their windows.
“It’s a violent place, a drug place – the people living there were druggos, lying on the footpath, lying on the street.
“They just walk straight on Stud Road in front of cars. It’s sad really.
Like many nearby residents, Darrell wonders why the unit’s tenants hadn’t been evicted long ago – despite endless pleas to Dandenong police, Greater Dandenong Council and the site’s owners corporation.
“We might now get some sleep.”
Victoria Police were at the scene again after the fire on 6 June.
A police spokesperson said the fire didn’t appear to be suspicious.
Last year, the site’s OC said it had requested the owner to sell the unit due to arrears.
The owner allegedly told VCAT that he didn’t want to kick out the “model” tenants. An arrears payment plan was put in place.
Greater Dandenong chief executive Jacqui Weatherill last year said the council was “deeply concerned” by the situation but had “limited powers”.
