Safety measures would have stopped petrol explosion, says owner

A Rotorua service station owner says he's concerned a man took his time seriously trying to blow up his business.

Paul Martelli, who owns the BP Edmund Road Automart, said the arsonist would not have been successful in his attempts but it was a major worry that he tried.

The arsonist spent 45 minutes in the early hours of last Monday morning setting small fires in an around the service station's forecourt.

He finished his attempts by trying to set fire to petrol pump handles, damaging the handles.

"It's a suburban area and there's a maximum of 60,000 litres of fuel there," Mr Martelli said. "There are fire stops in place [to prevent fuel from catching fire] but they don't know that. They think the whole thing is going to go up."

Despite the man being in the forecourt between 2am and 2.45am, the service station's security cameras weren't able to get a clear image of him.

Mr Martelli said the cameras were stationed a distance away, to get wide views of vehicles to record number plates, while the close up cameras were inside the service station store.

He said it was his understanding the man was also hiding his head with his hands or a hat.

"It's focused on the number plates because that's our biggest problem." Mr Martelli said he had just spent $16,000 on installing the security camera system.

"If it's an issue with clarity, I'll certainly look into it ... We got a new system because the old system was not clear enough."

Meanwhile, BP head office spokeswoman Greta Shirley said it was the first time she was aware such an attempt had been made at a BP service station.

"We are incredibly concerned about the health and safety aspect of it. It [BP] takes these matter very seriously."

She said the risk of the fire was very low because fuel didn't pump through the line when the pumps weren't operating.

The man is described as possibly Caucasian, about 175cm to 180cm tall (5.7ft to 5.8ft) and of average to thin build.

He was wearing black knee-length shorts, black footwear (possibly skateboard shoes) with a white motif on the side, white ankle high socks and a black top with either short sleeves or with the sleeves pushed up.

Detective Constable James Driver of the Rotorua CIB said police believed the arson was a one-off, although he'd like to hear from any other service station staff who had noticed fire damage around their premises.

If you know who he is or have information, contact Mr Driver on (0800) TIPOFF or (07) 348 0099.