The arsonists who set fire to a Christchurch arborist company’s trucks in Invercargill late last year are still on the loose.

Police investigating the suspicious fire which caused about $1 million of damage to four Treetech trucks in Queens Park, Invercargill, have made several appeals to the public for information over the last 10 months.

The incident occurred early on Wednesday, December 3, last year.

Treetech managing director Chris Walsh told The Press he is still hoping those responsible will be caught.

“We are hoping someone’s going to talk about it ... and that information will get to the police,” Treetech managing director Chris Walsh said.

Treetech was assisting with storm recovery at the park after high winds tore down thousands of trees in late October last year.

Walsh said shortly after the incident the fire had caused "about a million dollars worth of damage".

Police said at the time it appeared the trucks were deliberately set alight.

Walsh told The Press the culprits may have had knowledge of the specialist equipment they were targeting.

He said the damaged vehicles were a transporter truck, a purpose-built chip bin truck, a small 4WD Mitsubishi arborist truck and a medium-sized arborist chip bin truck.

“Someone knew what they were doing. The damage to our chippers and trucks, they knew what to look for and what to target,” he said.

Walsh said police had updated him on a regular basis as the investigation continued.

“We haven’t had that magical phone call yet, to say ‘we’ve caught them’,” he told The Press.

A police spokesperson said the investigation remains open.

“A thorough investigation has been conducted and we unfortunately have no further lines of enquiry at this stage.”

  • Anyone with information should call the police on 105, and use file number 251203/6133.

-Allied Media