Onehunga house fire: Person arrested over blaze at vacant Kainga Ora property

A person has been arrested and charged with arson following a fire which engulfed a vacant Kainga Ora property in Auckland’s Onehunga early this morning.

Emergency services were notified around 2.25am that there was a fire at an unoccupied address on Roosevelt Avenue in Onehunga.

In an emailed statement, Detective Senior Sergeant Scott Armstrong of the Auckland CIB said the fire was believed to have been deliberately started.

It had “fully engulfed” the building by the time Fire and Emergency (Fenz) and police staff arrived.

“While police were cordoning off the scene, a suspect was identified nearby and was taken into custody,” Armstrong said.

“Enquiries reveal this person has a previous association with the address and there is no ongoing threat to the community.

The person was due to appear in the Auckland District Court this morning, facing a charge of arson.

Firefighters attend a blaze at a vacant house on Roosevelt St in Onehunga early this morning. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Fire and Emergency earlier said a fire investigator was looking into what caused the significant fire.

Starting at 2.24am Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) received multiple calls about the blaze, northern shift manager Karen Larking said.On arrival the single-storey 10m x 8m house on Roosevelt St was well-involved in fire.

Nobody was in the house at the time, she said.

Four fire trucks and one ladder truck attended the fire, which photos show has gutted the roof space of the 10m x 8m single-storey house.

Just before 5.30am one truck and a fire investigator were still at the site.

Photos show the building, which is close to Fergusson Domain, had been fenced off with the front wall graffitied and the windows boarded up.

The Herald understands the property belongs to Kainga Ora, with much of the state housing on the street having been demolished to make way for apartments.