Fire victims' families set for funerals

Jake Hayes. Photo / Greg Bowker

The first of the funerals for three Hamilton house-fire victims will be tomorrow, as some of the grieving families prepare to speak publicly for the first time today.

Jake Hayes, 19, will be farewelled at the Hamilton Park Cemetery and Crematorium at Newstead at 2.30pm. The funerals of Toni Maree Johnston, 25, and Connor Swetman, 17, will be on Saturday at the Hamilton Gardens Pavilion at 1.30pm and Hamilton Park Cemetery at 2.30pm.

The trio were unable to escape the early-morning blaze of a 95-year-old villa in the central city last Sunday.

Four others in the house, where there had been a party the night before, managed to get out amid exploding gas bottles and intense smoke and flames.

Firefighters had to shore up the crumbling two-storey villa before they could retrieve the bodies on Sunday afternoon.

Investigators and police have spent this week trying to determine the cause of the suspicious blaze, including tracking down partygoers and seeking smartphone footage.

Jake's family were planning the teen's funeral yesterday as friends organised a memorial for tomorrow night at Washworld in Te Rapa.

Meanwhile some family members were expected to speak out publicly today when police hoped to have a clearer picture of the cause of the fire through scene examination.