{"id":521104,"date":"2026-03-05T21:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521104\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T21:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T21:42:12","slug":"police-charge-man-hunt-alleged-getaway-driver-one-year-on-from-deadly-arson-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521104\/","title":{"rendered":"Police charge man, hunt alleged getaway driver one year on from deadly arson attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/police\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Police\">Police<\/a> have charged a man and released an image of another more than 12 months after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/melbourne\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Melbourne\">Melbourne<\/a> dessert bar was torched, killing a suspected arsonist.<\/p>\n<p>A duo then fled in an orange Holden Commodore, despite one of them being &#8220;visibly on fire&#8221;, police allege.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b86b68e9-97d5-4c90-b2dd-f458a3117b65.png\"   alt=\"Chapel Street Prahran alleged arson March 5.\"\/>Accelerant was allegedly poured inside The Golden Lounge Dessert and Juice Bar on Chapel Street, Prahran, shortly after 4.15am on January 15, 2025, according to police. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>About 45 minutes later, emergency services were called to a Fitzroy home following reports a man had sustained significant burns.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>A 52-year-old St Albans man was rushed to hospital, where he received treatment for the next five months before succumbing to his injuries.<\/p>\n<p>This morning, police arrested a 44-year-old Fitzroy man at his home.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b17e5c08-40fc-4006-845a-120b8b2c24b2.png\"   alt=\"Chapel Street Prahran alleged arson March 5.\"\/>A duo then fled in a waiting orange Holden Commodore, despite one of them being &#8220;visibly on fire&#8221;. (Supplied)<\/p>\n<p>He has been charged with a spate of offences, including arson causing death, arson, criminal damage by fire\ufeff and car theft.<\/p>\n<p>He was expected to appear before Melbourne Magistrates&#8217; Court today.<\/p>\n<p>\ufeff\ufeffThe dessert bar sustained extensive damage during the incident, as well causing damage to surrounding businesses. Nobody else was inside the shop at the time.<\/p>\n<p>The store had been targeted similarly about six weeks before the deadly blaze, but the fire failed to take hold.<\/p>\n<p>With one man now charged, police are turning their attention to the alleged getaway driver \ufeffof the Holden Commodore.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/4fab2c7e-cd50-49d0-aba4-465730d5e77b.png\"   alt=\"Police have released an image of an alleged getaway driver wanted over the deadly Chapel Street arson attack. \"\/>Police have released an image of an alleged getaway driver wanted over the deadly Chapel Street arson attack.  (Victoria Police)<\/p>\n<p>A composite image of the alleged driver has been released, with anyone who recognises him urged to contact Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n<p>Vision of a silver Toyota Rav4 has also been released, after it was captured on CCTV driving past the dessert bar several times on the night of the alleged arson attack.<\/p>\n<p>Police are yet to determine the Toyota&#8217;s registration, but said it has a &#8220;distinctive hard shell covering the spare tyre on the back of the vehicle&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who recognises the vehicle or who was in the area on the night and may have dashcam footage is urged to contact police.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged a man and released an image of another more than 12 months after a Melbourne&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-521104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}