Most of what we write about involves a vehicle being used to break into something. This article is partly about that, and partly about attacks where a vehicle barrier would make little difference. We think it's worth saying both plainly.
Early October: cars alight on driveways
Over four nights in early October, the ABC reported a series of cars set alight at Melbourne homes:
- Taylors Hill, 5 October. Two cars were set alight at a home, and a stolen car also caught fire. A teenager suffered critical burns, and police were looking for two others who fled.
- Keilor, 6 October. A luxury car was set on fire in a home's driveway.
- Balwyn North, 7 October, 1am. Two cars in a carport were destroyed and the house was damaged. The person inside was not hurt.
- Maidstone, 7 October, about 6.15am. A car was destroyed and the fire spread to a two-storey townhouse. The two occupants escaped.
- Reservoir, 8 October, about 2am. Two cars in a front yard and two cars parked on a nearby street were destroyed.
- Springvale, 8 October, 3.45am. A car in a front yard was set alight and the fire caused minor damage to the house. Eight people were inside.
- Oakleigh East, 8 October, 5am. A ute in a driveway was destroyed and a window of the house was damaged while four family members slept.
Detective Acting Inspector Anthony Gasparini of the VIPER taskforce warned offenders: "If you're going to play with fire, you're going to get burnt." Premier Ben Carroll said he had spoken to the Chief Commissioner, and police spokesman John McLaughlan said there was no intelligence at that stage to suggest all the incidents were linked.
Brighton, 27 October
At about 1.20am on Tuesday 27 October, detectives believe offenders rammed the front gate of a home in Brighton, according to Victoria Police and the ABC. Accelerant was then poured along the driveway towards the house, and two parked cars were set alight and destroyed. The residents were not hurt. Police described it as a suspected targeted arson attack, and an arson chemist attended.
None of the reports cited here mentioned arrests.
What a barrier can't do
Let's start with the limits, because they matter. The reports don't describe how most of the early October fires were lit, but the targets were cars parked in driveways, carports and front yards, within easy walking distance of the street. A bollard doesn't stop someone walking up a driveway with a container of fuel. Nor does a gate, a fence or a camera, on its own. These attacks are a matter for police, and we're not going to pretend otherwise.
What a barrier can do
Brighton was different in one respect. Police believe a vehicle was used to ram the front gate first. Most residential gates, even solid-looking ones, are built for privacy and to keep pets and children in. They're hung on posts and hinges that aren't designed to absorb a car.
Where a gate is the main line of defence, bollards set just behind it change what a ramming achieves. The gate may still be damaged, but the vehicle stops at the bollards instead of travelling up the driveway. Removable bollards can be lifted out when the gate is in daily use, and fixed bollards can protect the parts of a frontage that never need vehicle access.
We haven't seen the Brighton property, and we're not suggesting bollards would have prevented what happened there. The accelerant was poured by people on foot. The general point is narrower: when a gate is rammed, what sits behind it decides how far the vehicle gets.
Practical steps that do help with car fires
Several of the October fires spread from the car to the house: into a carport, a townhouse, a window. That's worth thinking about whatever your security setup:
- Where you park. A car parked hard against the house or under an attached carport puts fire right against the building. Where there's a choice, a gap between the car and the house helps.
- Smoke alarms that work, including in rooms near the driveway, and a plan for getting everyone out through a door that isn't on the driveway side.
- Lighting and cameras covering the driveway. They won't stop a determined attack, but they help police, and lighting makes approaching unseen harder.
- The garage, if you have one with room for the car. A locked garage is a much harder target than an open driveway.
The honest summary
A physical barrier is good at one job: stopping a vehicle going where you don't want it to go. October showed attacks where that job mattered, like the gate in Brighton, and many where it didn't. Anyone selling security should be clear about which is which.