Northland town fears arsonist in the community after spate of suspicious fires

Little remained of a house bus and bach near Ahipara after a suspicious fire in March that locals fear could be the work of an arsonist.

Fears that Ahipara is home to an arsonist were revived last weekend when a fire was deliberately lit in an unoccupied bach on the road to Te Kohanga.

The Ahipara and Kaitaia fire brigades responded to the alarm at 2.04am, Kaitaia senior station officer Colin Kitchen saying it was fortunate the blaze had been seen when it was.

The fire, which Ahipara chief fire officer Dave Ross said had been lit under a couch, had burned a hole in a wall, but was extinguished before major damage was done.

The bach had no electricity, Kitchen added, and no one was there at the time.

Ross said there was no doubt that the fire had been deliberately lit. There was clear evidence that someone had broken in, he said, and the CIB in Kaitaia was investigating.

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He wasn't sure how many suspicious fires the brigade had responded to since a major vegetation blaze in late December, but suspected that it was into double figures.

"It's disturbing," he said.

An unoccupied holiday home in Kaka St was razed by fire, believed to have been deliberately lit, on February 11, weeks after Te Hiku Community Board member Jaqi Brown called a hui to inform the community about emergency service's beliefs that an arsonist was in the area.

"The response from everyone was, 'This has to stop'," she said.

The community was on high alert, residents keeping a close eye on suspicious behaviour and using a "very active" Ahipara Facebook page to share information, photos and footage.

The community, Far North District Council and the police were also talking about erecting security cameras in locations where there were high levels of suspicious activity.

The community has also updated its phone tree so in a crisis people can get hold of one another to help keep each other safe, and still in the works are long-term fire prevention strategies, such as fire breaks and different planting.