Man arrested over Waikato school arson

The fire had begun outside the classroom with an item being lit near the rear entrance. Photo / Dean Purcell

A 59-year-old man has been arrested and charged with arson in regards to a fire at Glen Massey School on Sunday.

A Waikato police spokesman confirmed this morning that the Glen Massey man will appear in the Hamilton District Court today on a charge of arson.

He has also been charged over four incidents involving the smashing of school windows in recent months.

The man faces four charges of intentional damage of the school dating back to July.

The school's most historic building - a 100-year-old building now being used as a classroom - was set on fire just after 7am.

However, resident Jeremy King, who is on the school's board of trustees, was alerted to the burglar alarm going off and headed straight there with his 11-year-old son Jabin in tow.

Together the pair managed to grab the school's fire hose and pulled it through a window and out to the blaze and helped douse it until emergency services arrived shortly afterwards.

Mr King told the Herald at the time he was proud of his son for getting on with the job.

"He kept a cool head, he got a fire extinguisher while I was ringing 111, we tried that and it lasted about three seconds so we got the hoses after that. [Jabin] was on the ball."

School principal Tim Howard said six of the school's windows had been vandalised since March. However, they had recently invested in CCTV cameras which he'd hoped would help in an arrest.

The school was still understood to be closed today as they made alternative arrangements for pupils in the smoke-affected classroom.

The fire had begun outside the classroom with an item being lit near the rear entrance.