Police are now investigating a fire which tore through a car-park at Sydney’s aquatic centre yesterday, destroying 47 vehicles.

There’s speculation it may have been started by a discarded cigarette butt.

Zuzanna Kamusinski reports.

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Around 1500 people were at the Olympic Park aquatic centre for a swimming meet when the fire broke out.

It’s thought to have started on a patch of grass near the car-park entrance.

With temperatures of 36 degrees and winds at 70 kilometres per hour, rows of cars were ablaze in no time.

Letitia Gorgas, Car owner: “All the crowd was out here and all the police hustled us quickly into the bus stop areas and just kept moving us back because the explosions kept going off. Lots of black smoke, everyone was calm.”

Vehicle owners returned today to inspect their cars many found just empty shells.

Andrew Bursill, Car owner: “My famous last words to the kids were this is a safe spot to park, no one will open their door into my car.”

Police are reviewing CCTV footage to determine if a careless smoker was responsible for the blaze.

Discarded cigarette butts are also suspected to have caused the fire that ravaged homes and bushland across North Sydney last night.

In the city’s west, a 15-year-old boy has been granted bail, charged with lighting a fire that forced 12 people to be evacuated from houses near Backhousia Reserve yesterday.

Zuzanna Kamusinski, QUT News.