Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tinny n.1

also tinney
[Gaelic/Erse teine, fire, Shelta tini, fire (poss. underpinned by SE tinder, use in lighting fires)]

1. a fire; also attrib.

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[UK]Life and Character of Moll King 12: I shall catch her at Maddox’s Gin-Ken, sluicing her Gob by the Tinney [...] I shall see my jolly old Codger by the Tinney-side.
[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 36: They wait an Opportunity till the Maid goes to make the Tinny, that is, the Fire.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Tinney. Fire (Cant).
[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
[UK]Egan Life in London (1869) 59: Enjoying the reviving comforts of a good tinney, smacking his chaffer over a glass of old hock, and topping his glim to a classic nicety.
[UK]Pierce Egan’s Life in London 4 Mar. 876/2: The unsettled state of the weather prevented many of the old Ring Goers leaving their tinnies.

2. (UK Und.) a discovery by the police.

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[UK]letter in J. Mackcoull Abuses of Justice 112: A tinney has broke out as hot as hell.
[UK]J. Mackcoull Abuses of Justice 112: By the Tinney is meant, that a discovery has taken place.

In compounds

tinny-hunter (n.) [‘No beast of prey is so noxious to Society, or so destitute of feeling, as these wretches’ (George Parker, A View of Society, 1781)]

a thief who robs people whose homes are burning down, while pretending to give assistance.

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[Aus]Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 274: tinny-hunters persons whose practice it is to attend fires, for the purpose of plundering the unfortunate sufferers, under pretence of assisting them to remove their property.
[UK]Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 333: A large fire happening the same night, I went into the house to bear a hand and toddled off with a good swag: this was the first and last time I was a tinny-hunter.