Fatal Hamilton fire: Police warn against speculation

The Collingwood Street house in Hamilton where three people were killed in a fire.

Police are warning people not to believe online speculation about the cause of a tragic Hamilton fire which killed three people while the investigation is still ongoing.

Jake Hayes, 19, Toni Maree Johnston, 23, and Connor Swetman, 17, died when an old villa in Collingwood St in Hamilton's CBD caught fire four weeks ago.

Police have set up an Operation Olympus Facebook page to help them piece together the events leading up to the fire.

The Herald had previously reported a gathering of about 30 people had been held at the house the evening before the fire broke out. There had been people sleeping in the house, but four managed to escape on to the street.

Hamilton CIB detective senior sergeant Ross Patterson said police had engaged with about 8000 people through the Facebook page to help with the investigation. They had also spoken to people "who may or may not be witnesses".

He said the aim of the page was to put the three deaths at the front of people's minds and engage with people they may not otherwise have reached.

However, the downside was that people were drawing the wrong conclusions about what had happened, as people's perceptions of what happened and actual events became blurred.

"The people we've spoken to so far have been interacting with police solely in this role and people would be ill-advised to draw conclusions from this or be drawn into speculation," Mr Patterson said.