A 54-year-old man has been charged with arson after a fire destroyed Napier's St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, a building that rose from the ruins of the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake.
Police arrested the man overnight. He was due to appear in Napier District Court today on one count of arson.
The fire took hold of the Tennyson St church at about 1am on October 26 and the building was destroyed. Crews from Napier, Taradale and Bay View, along with Napier’s operational support unit, spent almost four and a half hours at the scene.
Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Simmons thanked the agencies and businesses that helped with the investigation.
“Police are highly appreciative for the assistance from our partner agencies including Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ), Napier City Council, and the local business community, which enabled this timely result,” he said.
St Paul’s Reverends Mark Johnston and Carolyn Kelly said they had been “devastated” by the fire.
“So thankful that everyone is safe.”
Napier City councillor Sally Crown called the fire “heartbreaking news” for the church and the wider community.
“These places hold so much of our shared history and so many deeply personal memories. A church is its people, and that community remains, even as people grieve the building they loved,” she said.
Members of the congregation described the building as a “treasure in the town”.
The church had been lost before. The original building burned down in 1929, and its replacement was destroyed in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed 256 people in February 1931.
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