Arson suspect found near fire

December 19, 2008

A Temuka man allegedly responsible for four arsons in the town early yesterday, was arrested within minutes of the last fire being discovered.
The spate of fires began just after midnight when a late-model Holden Commodore ute was found alight on Commerce St.
Fifteen minutes later a call came in of a tree on fire in the front yard of a Birkett St house.
The third call, just before 1am, was to a hedge on fire in King St. Within 15 minutes of that call, there was a report of a tree on fire at a property on the Winchester-Timaru highway near the intersection with Te Awa Road.
Constable JA McIlraith of the Temuka police said a 43-year- old man was located close to the site of the fourth fire within about 10 minutes of it being discovered.
Temuka fire chief Richard Webb yesterday predicted there would not be a lot of partying for the brigade members this weekend, after a week of callouts.
While the damage from last night's arsons was relatively minor, at one stage the firefighters had thought the situation was going to be far worse.
With two appliances and 10 firefighters on the road dealing with the fourth incident in an hour, Mr Webb said they had feared the worst when they received the news the alarms had gone off at Opihi College just after 1am.
The two Temuka trucks headed for the school knowing Timaru and Washdyke crews were also on their way.
After all they had been dealing with in the previous hour, the college job turned out to be a non- event. A faulty smoke alarm was responsible for the callout.
Mr Webb suspected some of the firefighters would have ended up with little sleep that night, as several were shift workers and it would have been only hours before they started work.
It was the second night of lost sleep for the brigade members this week, after they were called to a Princes St house early on Wednesday.
The female occupant had awoken to find flames just metres from her bed.
The weatherboard house was extensively damaged.