Seven suspicious fires have been lit across Wellington in a busy night for police and firefighters.
The first of the blazes started on the porch of a Nairn Street property shortly before 2am on Tuesday.
The occupants managed to evacuate before firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze.
Residents in a Wellington flat that may have been deliberately set on fire overnight woke to the sound of "smashing windows and screaming".
Lucy Fredrickson, who lived in the downstairs part of the Nairn Street property said she and her flatmates thought at first the upstairs residents might have beengetting robbed.
Her partner went to investigate and discovered the fire, which started on the property's porch just before 2am.
"As soon as you got out the doors you could see smoke and flames . . . it's pretty scary."
Everyone managed to escape the building before firefighters arrived. Fire investigators will examine the scene later today.
