'Sick' arsonist strikes at retirement village

Investigators are looking for a "sick" arsonist after a missile was fired through the window of a retirement village home while the elderly resident slept, setting the unit alight.

The Tawa arson comes amidst fears of a serial arsonist in the Wellington region -- it came just a day after a Porirua school just a few kilometres away had four classrooms gutted and numerous other buildings smoke and water damaged in a blaze.

Two teenagers were today apprehended following the school fire. A 15-year-old male was charged with two counts of arson and was to appear in Porirua District Court today. A 13-year-old accomplice has been referred to Youth Aid.

The elderly Tawa woman is suffering from smoke inhalation after fire broke out in her retirement village unit when a missile was fired through the window.

Firefighters were called to the unit at Redwood Village at 11.41pm yesterday.

The elderly resident was asleep at the time of the incident and suffered smoke inhalation, Tawa senior station officer David Stone said.

"It's believed suspicious... something was thrown through the window."

Mr Stone said the woman was staying elsewhere but was not in hospital. He could not say what had been thrown through the window but added: "You'd have to be pretty sick to do that sort of thing."

The unit suffered extensive damage but firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading to an adjoining unit.

The fire was out within 15 minutes and Mr Stone said both police and fire safety officers were investigating.

Meanwhile, a string of suspicious scrub fires have sparked fears a serial arsonist may be at work in the Wellington region.

Porirua senior station officer Boyd Atkinson said: "We've had a string of scrub fires in the area between Johnsonville and Porirua, and some out in the Hutt Valley as well.

"We're reluctant to link them all together but some of them are definitely of suspicious origin."

Te Kura Maori o Porirua board of trustees chairwoman Meka Whaitiri said walking through the school yesterday showed the enormity of the destruction.

"And it really brings home the senselessness of the act and the huge impact it has," she said.

"One of the parts destroyed is where all our new entrants, our five-year-olds are, and looking at their equipment and all their work they've done, their paintings and their books and paints -- it's a very, very sad sight."

The youngsters were confused and upset to see what had happened to their school, she said.

- NZPA