West Coast police today expressed alarm at the number of arsons and attempted arsons in recent months. Prevention sergeant Andrew Lyes said the destruction of property and the threat to lives posed by deliberately lit fires was very serious. In Hokitika, the brigade put out an apparently deliberately lit car fire on the beach early on Saturday, near Hampden St. Mr Lyes said investigations around recent arsons had not found they were linked. "What has come out of all that is we've got these arsons and they are of a real concern."

Source: Otago Daily Times December 05, 2017 01:30 UTC