A series of at least five suspected arsons in Hastings and Napier over the Christmas and New Year period continues to baffle police with still no arrests yesterday.
At least five fires are being investigated, including the destruction of separate homes in Napier and Hastings.
The two most serious were the torching of a vehicle in a carport between two flats in Durham Ave, Tamatea, gutting one unit and smoke-logging the second late on Christmas Day, and a house fire in Holmes Pl, Flaxmere, after a suspected burglary on the afternoon of January 2.
With no one home at the time of the two fires there were no injuries.
The occupant of the Tamatea flat, a short distance from the intersection roundabout of Durham and Westminster avenues, was understood to have been on his way home when the fire was reported at 10.49pm on Christmas Day.
Two Fire and Emergency appliances from Napier and one from Hastings along with Operational Support (formerly Fire Police) were used at the scene.
A Flaxmere family were out shopping when the fire was reported at their home last Tuesday, where police found a trail of blood leading towards another property.
Police have found nothing to link those two fires or connect either of them with three others in the Frimley area of Hastings — a hedge fire in Nottingley Rd, Frimley, in the early-morning of December 30, an attempt to burn a tractor in the Omahu Rd, Hastings, yard of Bridgeman Concrete, and another streetside incident in Frimley on Sunday night.
Spates of fires in the Frimley area are not new.
One in August 2011 involved the torching of funnelboard real estate signs early one morning, but a series of fires in the area from May 2016 to February last year was more sinister, including the torching of a motor home with a fire that spread into the upstairs level of a house while the occupants were asleep.
A 15-year-old youth was arrested in relation to some of the more-than-10 fires and appeared in the Youth Court charged with arson.
Detective Constable Rhyan Honeyfield, of Hawke's Bay CIB, yesterday linked the three in the Frimley area over the last fortnight, saying all had been deliberately lit.
With the latest events unresolved police are seeking reports of any suspicious activity which could be related to the fires or any other similar incidents or possible arson attempts.