Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) are investigating three "deliberately lit" fires that blazed across the city overnight yesterday.
Sergeant Matt Lee said the first fire broke out at a commercial building in Harrow St about 11.30pm. An hour later, an empty residential home in Lees St went up in flames and about an hour after that a fire was started in a stand of trees outside the Otago Pistol Club in Waldronville.
The properties in Lees and Harrow Sts were gutted.
A Lees St resident said she was woken by shouting from emergency services telling her to evacuate her home, which was next to the burning structure. As she fled, she could feel the intense heat from the neighbouring property.
Emergency services managed to contain the fire and no surrounding structures were damaged.
She said her neighbours heard the smashing glass from the heat coming from the property.
"If you saw it a couple of months ago, the whole property was just packed with stuff, and they were doing a real good job of clearing the place up."
She said it "sucked for them" that the property manager’s hard work went up in flames, but it was lucky things were cleared up before the blaze so there was less fuel for the fire.
She sat outside the house for hours watching the firefighters battle the flames.
"Definitely could have been worse."
Another neighbour said the property manager had been clearing the property so two university students could move in next year.
They had been doing a lot of work after "illegal, hoarder tenants" had made a mess.
"That was the scary part, because as soon as we noticed it ... the flames were leaping right up, the ivy was alight and it was scarily close to our house.
"It was just red hot."
She said her cat was "completely freaked", but she was impressed with how quickly Fenz took care of the blaze.
A Fenz spokesperson said that blaze reached second-alarm status, and half a dozen appliances were deployed.
The spokesperson said they were initially concerned the house was occupied, but that turned out not to be the case.
Sgt Lee said neighbours had called emergency services about the fire, and reported to police that voices had been heard on the street moments before.
Another hour later, emergency services were alerted to the fire in Waldronville. Five trucks, two tankers and two rural crews were sent to the scene.
When crews arrived the flames were about 20m high.
Sgt Lee said a nearby resident reported the fire.
A stack of newspapers was located near the scene, he said.
This fire was also believed to have been intentionally lit, and was thought to have started 30 minutes before it was extinguished.
Nobody was hurt in any of the three fires.
