Napier: Marewa homicide house scorched by second suspicious fire

Police outside the site of a suspicious fire on Nuffield Ave in Napier on Thursday morning. The address was where homicide victim Arohaina Henare was found in November. Photo / Warren Buckland

A second suspicious fire has scorched a Napier property at the centre of a 2022 homicide investigation.

Fire and Emergency NZ communications centre shift manager Murray Dunbar said two fire trucks from Napier arrived at the scene of a fire at a house on Nuffield Ave about 6.30am and were able to control the flames by about 6.48am.

There were no occupants in the home at the time.

The Marewa address is where police say they found homicide victim Arohaina Henare unresponsive on November 18, 2022.

Henare died soon after she was found, and a 48-year-old man known to her was arrested on November 19 and charged with murder.

A suspicious fire damaged a shed on the property roughly two weeks later.

The man arrested has since pleaded not guilty and will appear in court for a name suppression hearing in February.

Dunbar said firefighters were treating Thursday morning’s fire in the house as suspicious and a fire investigator would be at the scene.

The suspicious fire is the second fire within two months at the property since the homicide. Photo / Warren Buckland

A police spokeswoman said they were advised of the fire at 6.48am.

Visible fire and smoke damage could be seen through several windows and a doorway of the property from the street as police inspected the scene at 9.40am.

Dunbar said he was unable to confirm the full extent of the building damage at this stage.