Petrol-soaked publican saves the day

Publican Kevin Reid, of the Lake Waihola Cafe and Bar, has been praised by police after preventing an arson attempt and chasing the alleged offender while being splashed with petrol. Photo by Jane Dawber.

A Waihola publican was doused in petrol and had a lighter flame flicked at him by an alleged arsonist "out to make everybody pay".

Kevin Reid (61) said it was shaping up as a busy Saturday night at the Lake Waihola Cafe and Bar when he refused to serve an "intoxicated-looking gentleman".

The man later returned to accuse the publican of locking him in the smokers' area, but it appeared he had been "pushing the door instead of pulling it" and was ejected when he became agitated.

Outside the pub, the publican asked the man if the "old bomb" in the car park was his and checked for car keys in case he was planning to drive home, but the man insisted he was staying at "Steve's house" in the South Otago township and walked off.

"I thought that was the end of the story."

With a band playing and staff busy serving 80 patrons in the bar and another 60 in the restaurant, "the next minute someone rushed in and said a car is on fire", Mr Reid said.

"I grabbed the extinguisher, shot out and put it out; thought it was a fault in the car until I started walking back and smelling kerosine and petrol all over the place," the former firefighter said.

Shining his torch, he found eight vehicles - parked just 5m from the bar and restaurant - had been doused in petrol and kerosine.

While his wife called the police, Mr Reid began hosing down the vehicles when he saw the ejected man walking towards the pub with two five-litre red jerrycans in his hands.

"'Oi', I said, and he began sprinting down the road."

During a 100m chase, the alleged arsonist began splashing himself and Mr Reid with petrol from the jerry cans, while trying to light his blue disposable lighter.

"We were dancing around with each other but eventually I grabbed him and got him on the ground while he is trying to flick the lighter, and all the time I am trying to keep the hand which had the petrol away from the hand which had the lighter.

"As he was trying to run and splash it on me, most of it was going on him."

Mr Reid, who had grabbed the petrol and was sitting on the man, was assisted by local man George Steel, who managed to prise the lighter from the man's hand.

"He was dead serious. He was out to make everybody pay, not just me. He kept on saying 'Give us a fag, give us a fag'."

Police arrived a short time later and arrested the man.

A 43-year-old Outram man will appear in the Dunedin District Court today on charges of arson, aggravated assault and driving with excess breath-alcohol.

Balclutha police Sergeant Martin Bull praised Mr Reid for preventing what could have been a "disastrous incident".

- hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz