Gary Pickering Funeral Home on Walton's Ave was one of several churches and buildings attacked by an apparent arsonist in Masterton overnight. Photo: RNZ / Rachel Helyer-Donaldson
Multiple Masterton churches and a funeral home are now crime scenes, with police investigating a series of possible arsons - news that has rippled through the shocked town, its mayor says.
A seventh building has been targeted on Saturday morning in Masterton in a spate of attacks on churches and a funeral home by an arsonist.
Four churches across the Wairarapa town were set alight between 4am and 5am on Saturday morning.
Police said they believed the funeral home was targeted because there is a chapel there.
Duty commissioner Bradley Allen said a funeral home was also set alight at 10am.
He said no one was in the Gary Pickering Funeral Home on Waltons Ave at the time of the fire.
Allen said the police are following up CCTV as well as a Facebook post in which a local man claimed he carried out the attacks.
Duty commissioner Bradley Allen. Photo: RNZ/Rachel Helyer-Donaldson
He said Saturday morning's attack took police by surprise.
No arrests have been made but a dozen officers have been sent up from Wellington and off duty officers from the local station have been called in.
The method was the same in all cases - in each case a petrol bomb was thrown through a window.
All caught fire and there is some fire damage, but police said it was minimal.
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said "the fires are being treated as suspicious and have been referred to police."
Flames can be seen in the dark through the windows at this Masterton church, as firefighters tackled the blaze early on Saturday. Photo: Supplied/ Fire and Emergency Wellington
The four blazes were all thought to have started between 4:25am and 4:35am, and were found at: Anglican Church Of the Epiphany, St Patrick's Catholic Church Masterton, Masterton Baptist Church and Equippers Church Masterton, FENZ said.
The two additional arsons were also at Masterton Churches: St James Union Church on High Street and the Kingdom Hall both on High Street, police said.
A church co-ordinator from St Patrick's Catholic Church said they were devastated to have been a target of the fires.
By late morning Saturday she had not been able to see inside the church to check the damage, but said they knew there was a broken window and fire damage in the front foyer.
Damage at one of the four Masterton churches where fires took hold, early on Saturday 22 February. Photo: Supplied/ Fire and Emergency Wellington
The fires were a "sad, sad thing" to happen, and quite gutting, she said.
Masterton mayor Gary Caffell said the community was reeling from the news, and the attacks had come out of the blue.
"[I'm] really shocked, and the community is shocked as well, I mean you just don't expect something this sort of thing to happen, and particularly in a place like Masterton," Caffell said.
Church will continue to meet and serve, pastor says
The Anglican Church of the Epiphany Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Helyer Donaldson
Equippers Church Pastor Matt Cornford said on Saturday morning that the community was already rallying around them.
The congregation did not yet know if their church would be able to open to worshippers on Sunday, but had been offered other places to hold their service.
Equippers Church, in Masterton, on Saturday after the fire there was put out. Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Helyer Donaldson
Emergency services were still investigating the fire and Cornford said he would not know the full extent of the damage until they were finished. But he said he was already aware of some broken and blackened windows and that some of the rooms facing the road had been affected.
An RNZ reporter at the scene on Saturday morning said charred damage could be seen inside the church building behind broken window glass. The smell of burning was still strong, and the beeping of what could have been an alarm continued well into the morning. Another building on the church grounds was also cordoned off, but it was not clear if that had been damaged too.
Cornford said from the outside it looked like some of the other churches were affected worse, however.
He said ultimately it was the people that made the church and fortunately none of them had been harmed.
"The building that we're in has been a place that we've been able to love and serve the community in lots of different ways over the last 30 years, and we'll continue to do so.
"It's a shame that has been attempted to be disrupted."
Police tape up around Masterton Baptist Church on Saturday. Photo: RNZ/ Rachel Helyer Donaldson
FENZ said firefighting crews had responded to the fires from throughout the Wairarapa region and from as far away as Avalon Station, in Lower Hutt.
Police officers will remain at the affected churches through Saturday morning along with firefighters, and officers will be patrolling in Masterton, Featherson and Carterton.
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