Woman charged with arson after blaze in Mt Wellington Countdown toilet paper aisle

A woman has been charged with arson, eight months after an Auckland grocery store had to be evacuated and closed for a day due to a large fire in the toilet paper aisle.

Bystanders filmed the blaze as six fire trucks and support vehicles responded to the Mt Wellington Countdown - now called Woolworths - on the evening of July 27.

Mt Wellington resident Heather Marie Ann Boyce, 28, appeared for the first time in Auckland District Court this morning on a charge of wilfully setting fire to property, endangering life.

A woman has been charged with arson, eight months after a July 2023 blaze in the toilet paper aisle of a Mt Wellington Countdown grocery store. Photo / Supplied

She was ordered during the brief hearing to return to court next month, at which point she is expected to enter a not-guilty plea.

Emergency responders rushed to the store at 6.11pm, while a security guard was seen on a bystander’s video tackling the blaze with an extinguisher. The fire was doused upon firefighters’ arrival seven minutes later, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson previously told the Herald.

Several 111 calls were made from inside the supermarket.

Firefighters rushed to a smoke-filled Countdown grocery store in Mt Wellington in July 2023. A woman has now been charged with arson. Photo / Supplied

“We are continuing to assess the damage and will reopen as soon as we can,” a Woolworths spokesperson said the following day, explaining that the store had been temporarily closed due to the damage caused by the fire, smoke and water.

“All of our team are safe and we’re continuing to provide them with support as needed.”

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.