New Zealand police say arson suspected in deadly hostel fire

WELLINGTON – An arsonist may have ignited the hostel blaze that

killed at least six people in New Zealand’s capital

, police said on Wednesday as they launched a homicide investigation.

Flames and smoke engulfed the 92-room, four-storey Loafers Lodge in Wellington in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing dozens of residents to flee for their lives.

Some crawled through thick smoke to safety, while others were rescued from the roof by emergency services using ladder trucks.

Those who died still lie in the charred building.

“I can confirm that we are treating the fire as arson,” police inspector and acting district commander Dion Bennett told reporters, declining to give the full reasons behind the arson probe.

“It is being treated as a homicide investigation,” he said, adding that police had a list of people they wanted to speak to.

No-one had been arrested so far, Mr Bennett said. Police have said the death toll may rise.

Firefighters said they found six bodies inside the charred hostel, but were unable to search everywhere because the roof had partially collapsed on the top floor. 

Earlier, police revealed that a couch had caught fire inside the hostel just two hours before the fatal blaze broke out, and that they were investigating possible links. 

A police reconnaissance team entered the building for the first time on Wednesday after it was declared safe, aiming to look for evidence and locate the dead. 

“The scene examination will be extensive and methodical and we expect it to take some time, likely several days given the large size of the building,” Mr Bennett said.

‘This one’s real’

Fire damage inside the building was “extensive”, Mr Bennett said, with burnt debris reaching as high as 1m.

One of the survivors, Mr Simon Hanify, said he heard a smoke alarm at the time of the couch fire but ignored it because it often went off without reason.

When the alarm rang again two hours later, however, he left the burning building.

“I wasn’t even going to leave my room. But I felt like a cigarette. I thought I’d go outside because I usually share them with other people,” Mr Hanify said.

“There was smoke coming down the stairwell on the ceiling and our hallway,” he added.

“I’ve been through fire before so I did a quick lap of our floor, knocking on doors, saying ‘this one’s real, evacuate’.”

The Loafers Lodge advertised itself as a “convenient and affordable” option offering laundry and kitchen facilities as well as security, with a lock on each floor.

It was used as a cheap home by a mix of long and short-term residents, including some on lower incomes or those staying temporarily in New Zealand.

Many were shift workers, making it difficult to be sure of everyone’s whereabouts at the time of the blaze.

Police said 92 people had so far been accounted for, with up to 20 yet to be tracked down. AFP