Far North house fire in Matauri Bay being treated as arson

Fire investigations reveal the house fire at Matauri Bay was deliberately lit.

A single-storey house fire at a social housing development site in Matauri Bay in the Far North was deliberately lit, a fire investigator says.

The alarm was raised at 3.44am on Tuesday and when firefighters arrived the newly built house was engulfed in flames.

The “significantly damaged” two-bedroom house was one of eight homes built by the Matauri X Incorporation as part of their social housing project.

Matauri X committee of management member Geraldine Baker said they were devastated by the fire.

“We were actually ahead of schedule in making these houses habitation-ready roughly before April. But now this fire incident will set us back by quite a lot, even though we are insured.”

Fire investigator Craig Bain said someone had deliberately broken into the lounge of the house and started a fire using an accelerant.

“We believe the initial fire in the house largely went unnoticed since no one was residing in the development block.

“Also, the lounge was on the other side of the side of the house which would have made any passersby or the nearest residents get alerted until much later,” he said.

Baker said they were working with the authorities to find the culprit and that the incident had forced them to think about implementing “stringent” security measures for their ongoing social project, which is being built with government Māori housing funding.

She also revealed that recently they discovered another of their houses was damaged by fire and were working with the investigators to confirm if the incident was arson as well.

“Both the houses were next to each other. But, unlike the first, the second one is still intact with no visual signs outside it had been damaged.

“The reason it wasn’t discovered until yesterday was that the fire was continued within the house and the door was closed. It’s just devastating,” Baker said.

Avneesh Vincent is the crime and emergency services reporter at the Advocate. He was previously at the Gisborne Herald as the arts and environment reporter and is passionate about covering stories that can make a difference. He joined NZME in July 2023.