Arson twice a week
Suspected cases of arson have increased from two a month in Christchurch to two a week, a Christchurch seminar on arson was told yesterday. Mr G. Roberts, deputy chief fire officer of the Fire Service in Christchurch, said that this increase had occurred in the last 15 months.
"Only the tip of the iceberg is visible,” said Mr B. Joyce, a senior divisional officer. “I think that we are not recognising 90 per cent of our arson fires.” Some cases of arson were sheer vandalism, Mr Roberts said. In other cases fires were lit because of poor economic conditions in an attempt to de-
fraud insurance companies. Small businesses, finding that custom was falling and that debts were high, sought the weak way out of bankruptcy, by fraud. Mr Bird said that New Zealand lost about S7M a year from arson. In Christchurch in the 1976-77 year, one in every eight fires was arson or suspected arson.
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Press, 26 June 1978, Page 1
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161Arson twice a week Press, 26 June 1978, Page 1
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