A mattress outside My Charity Shop at Mowbray was set alight on Tuesday night, with the blaze quickly spreading to other furniture and destroying thousands of dollars worth of donations.

Tasmania Fire Service was called to the Invermay Road shop about midnight. 

The fire did not spread to the building, but heat from the blaze caused windows to shatter.

The blaze was contained and police were called to the scene, but the suspect was nowhere to be seen.

CCTV footage revealed a woman leaving the scene in a Mitsubishi Lancer Sedan and driving south on Invermay Road. 

The shop’s manager, Juanita Simpson, received a phone call just before 1am.

“I think these are just people that want to cause havoc in the community,” she said.

“The furniture could have housed somebody that doesn’t have anything and needed it.”

It was the second time the charity store had been targeted.

Earlier this month vandals damaged donations and left broken glass throughout the property.

My Charity Shop raises money for cancer patients within Tasmanian communities.

Its latest fundraiser aims to support 10-month-old Sienna Plumbridge, who suffers from a genetic disorder that causes tumours to grow along the nervous system. 

Mrs Simpson was one of a group of people that organised the fundraiser for Sienna this coming Saturday.

But now her preparations for the event have been set back a day, with her and other My Charity Shop volunteers being forced to clean up after Tuesday night’s fire.

“It’s going to take all day,” she said.

“The thing is if anybody wants anything, they can come here and just ask and we will give it to them.”

Volunteering Tasmania chief executive Alison Lai said this type of incident would not only impact the volunteers, but vulnerable people in the community.

“When we see the efforts of volunteers in our community being treated with such disregard, it’s incredibly disappointing,” she said.

“To think somebody would destroy furniture that was obviously going to be sold or be given to individuals in need, it impacts those who have taken the time to donate and those people who are needing those donated gifts.”

Anyone with information about the fire should contact police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.