Fire sparked by charging battery devastates Wattle Grove family, destroys new car

A fire sparked by a charging car battery has devasted a Wattle Grove family and destroyed a brand new car.

The Paterniti family said they first noticed smoke coming out from under the garage and ran to grab buckets of water and garden hoses.

It took four minutes for the flames to tear through the property, leaving not much that the family could salvage.

The fire destroyed the family’s new car, picked up and paid for, just four days earlier.

The family bought the new car because Lou Paterniti was run over by his own car that was stolen almost four months ago. He was seriously injured and was unable to work.

“We’ve got each other and we’ve got family and that’s all that really matters. We’ve got our health, I mean it could have been a lot friggen’ worse.” he said.

Gaye Paterniti said the family wanted to remind people to get smoke alarms installed in car ports and sheds.