Arson charge after fire hits flats

Wellington house fire

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House blaze in Allenby Tce, central Wellington.

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A teenager has been charged with arson after residents were forced to flee a fire that badly damaged a 100-year-old building in central Wellington.

Thirty firefighters rushed to the three-storey Allenby Tce house as flames exploded out of upper-storey windows and thick smoke clouded the area about 11.30am yesterday.

Though there were reports of a person trapped in the building, which includes five flats, everyone had escaped by the time firefighters arrived.

Acting Detective Sergeant Paul Baskett said a man, 19, who knew the tenants, had been charged with arson and burglary.

He was picked up by police in central Wellington a short time after the fire and is due to appear in Wellington District Court today.

"If that fire had taken hold, and with the close proximity of other buildings, there was a definite danger to life. Fortunately there was a very rapid response to the situation," Mr Baskett said.

It is understood that the teenager was the former partner of a woman who lived in the flats.

Assistant area fire commander Des Irving said firefighters controlled the blaze within half an hour and stopped it spreading to a nearby building.

The upper-level flat was "extensively damaged", the ceiling had to be knocked in, and the bottom-floor flats were water damaged.

Fire investigators had yet to determine what started the fire.

The building was built between 1900 and 1909 and the property is valued at about $670,000.

Neighbours in a house less than a metre away were alerted when one flatmate smelled smoke while she was in the shower.

Another flatmate shouted warnings to the others, including one man who was asleep.

"I ran around telling everyone to get out just in case it spread.

"It wasn't too bad just as long as no-one was hurt next door."