Arrest in Dunedin after garage fire and street altercation

The fire-damaged garage. Photo / Ben Tomsett

A man has been arrested after a street altercation saw a car and garage catch fire in a Dunedin suburb this afternoon.

Emergency services rushed to the scene of a garage fire just after 1pm following reports of an altercation between people known to each other.

The garage fire at a house on Rona St in Dunedin.

Police said they received reports of the altercation on Dunedin’s Rona St around 1.35pm.

They arrived to find a garage on fire.

Three crews were called from Dunedin, Lookout Point and St Kilda and the road was closed while they worked on the scene.

One person fled the address and was arrested a short time later nearby.

A car was also damaged in the incident this afternoon. Photo / Ben Tomsett

A FENZ spokesperson said the fire is extinguished.

A neighbour who did not want to be named said she watched the incident unfold and the blaze erupt.

”I’d just got home from work and heard a bit of an altercation going on next door, just a bit of yelling and stuff,” she said.

Emergency services at the scene in Dunedin this afternoon. Photo / Ben Tomsett

From her bedroom window, she saw a man in a hoodie jump a fence, followed by more yelling and glass smashing.

The man then smashed a speaker, she said.

A few moments later, she heard the neighbour yelling while using a hose to try and extinguish a fire in the garage.

An arrest was made following the fire.

”There was no way that the hose was going to put it out,” she said.

“And then it just went boom and blew up, basically... there obviously had to be some sort of solvent added to it, because it went up really quickly.”

Her son called emergency services.

She said the area was usually “so quiet” and they never had any prior trouble.