THREE cars were damaged by fire on Thursday morning in Teignmouth, after an attempted theft of a Vauxhall Nova failed.
The Nova merit, which belonged to a Teignmouth woman, had its door forced open and keys were jammed into the ignition.
It seems that the would-be thief could not get the car to start, so set fire to the vehicle. The flames engulfed two nearby vehicles, a Volkswagen Scirocco and a Fiat Tipo, which were both partly damaged.
No items were taken from any of the three vehicles, parked outside the entrance to the Broadmeadow Industrial Estate but the Nova was said to have been completely burnt out and was now a write-off.
Devon Fire and Rescue service received the calls between 1.50am and 2.07am and attended with an appliance from Teignmouth.
Police were treating the incident as arson.
l A fire started in an electrical intake on the first of Teignmouth Bowling Club, causing the building to be smoke-logged.
The alarm was raised at 2.58pm on Tuesday last week, and two appliances from teignmouth attended.
The blaze was extinguished by firefighters wearing two sets of beathing apparatus using two dry powder extinguishers.