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Blaze at school suspicious BY DAISY HUDSON
DAISY.H@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
A fire that destroyed sporting equipment and damaged a shed at Mt Somers Springburn School yesterday was deliberately lit, police say. Fire crews were called to the school about 9.30am yesterday after a fire broke in the school’s PE shed. Firefighters from the Mt Somers rural brigade and the Methven Volunteer Fire Brigade
were quick to the scene and extinguished the fire before it had time to take hold and threaten classrooms. Ashburton CIB Detective Leigh Jenkins said a 13-year-old youth had been referred to the Police Youth Aid Section after the incident. “A scene examination was conducted together with New Zealand Fire Service staff,” he said. “The evidence collated to date
suggests that the fire was deliberately lit.” Mr Jenkins said police were not looking for anyone else in relation to the fire. Methven Volunteer Fire Brigade deputy chief fire officer Gary Blackwell said the fire was “very suspicious”. “There was nothing there that could have lit it, unless somebody wanted to,” he said. “It was a good job Mt Somers was so close, because it never re-
ally got hold of the building.” Mr Blackwell said the fire had destroyed sports equipment in the shed, and had also caused some charring and smoke damage to the structure itself. However, he said the shed had escaped relatively unscathed after the blaze. For Mt Somers Springburn School principal Brent Gray, the fire was “a little bit alarming”. However he was relieved the blaze had not affected any other
buildings at the school, which reopened its doors for the new school year today. “It could be worse, but it’s just frustrating,” he said. “It’s more of an inconvenience than anything.” Mr Gray said while there was some smoke damage, the majority of the damage was limited to the gear stored in the shed. “There’s a lot of melted sports gear,” he said. “It obviously got pretty hot in there.”
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