Brad Chapman said he would never forgive Tonya Bennett for setting fire to his Pukekohe home knowing his mother was asleep upstairs.

A teenager who admitted murdering a mother-of-three by setting her house alight was today jailed for a minimum of 11 and a half years.

A 28-year-old North Shore man has appeared in court over the murder of Jacqueline Blackbourn in a house fire last month.

Police investigating the murder of a dairy farmer in his driveway are looking into an unsolved arson at the property two years ago.

A bar owner reportedly doused in petrol before he escaped his burning hotel had previous run-ins with gang members, locals say.

A man was doused in petrol but managed to crawl to safety as his hotel burned to the ground after a robbery this morning.

Fire is the third attack on an early childhood centre in the Nelson region in a year.