Suspicious fire in Carterton

DAMAGED: A suspicious blaze damaged this cottage in Matarawa Rd yesterday. Police are investigating the cause of the blaze.

Police and the fire service are investigating the cause of a fire which extensively damaged a rural Dalefield home yesterday afternoon, only a paddock away from a "fireball" house fire on January 21.

The residents in both instances weren't home when the fires started.

Carterton Volunteer Chief Fire Officer Wayne Robinson said they were called to the blaze on Matarawa Rd at midday yesterday to find the house "well engulfed" in flames.

Two fire trucks and a water tanker from Carterton attended along with a fire truck and van from Greytown as about 20 fire fighters tackled the blaze.

It took them about 10 minutes to bring the flames under control but the house had been severely damaged, Mr Robinson said.

The occupant and her 14-year-old son arrived home as firefighters were dousing the flames.

"She's pretty distraught. All her possessions are gone."

At this this stage, the fire is being treated as suspicious with detectives and fire investigators probing yesterday's fire and the fire nearly three weeks ago at the neighbour's house which was in a paddock on the same property.

Detective Sergeant Glen Jackson said police were yet to speak with the woman who rented the rural property. She was out at the time.

The cottage she and her son lived in was now uninhabitable, he said.

"It has been extensively damaged.

"Fire safety officers are trying to determine the cause but at this stage we are treating it as suspicious.

"Next door was gutted by fire only three weeks ago or so. That obviously raises suspicion."

It could be a couple of days before investigators find out what caused the latest blaze.

Meanwhile, the January 21 fire which gutted the house next door belonging to John Cullinane, who had been away three weeks at the time, was believed at the time to have started as a result of the huge Eketahuna earthquake which rocked the region the same day.

Neighbours had alerted Carterton Volunteer Fire Service about both incidents.