{"id":274314,"date":"2026-02-08T21:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/274314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:25:08","slug":"taupo-school-fire-pair-face-arson-charges-after-huge-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/274314\/","title":{"rendered":"Taup\u014d school fire: Pair face arson charges after huge blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Taupo<\/p>\n

\nThe fire broke out on Sunday afternoon.
\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n

Two young people have been charged with arson over the large fire at Taup\u014d’s biggest school.<\/p>\n

Crews contained the blaze at Taup\u014d-nui-a-Tia College<\/a> that broke out on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Police closed surrounding roads for approximately four hours while Fire and Emergency New Zealand worked to contain the blaze at the school on Spa Road.<\/p>\n

“The block of classrooms was destroyed, along with everything inside,” Detective Sergeant Allan Humphries said.<\/p>\n

“We acknowledge this will be devastating for college teachers, students and families.”<\/p>\n

He said the two youths were due to appear in Taup\u014d Youth Court this week.<\/p>\n

The school will be closed on Monday.<\/p>\n

Local MP Louise Upston said the school and the Ministry of Education would minimise the disruption to students.<\/p>\n

The ministry will meet with school staff today to assess the damage.<\/p>\n

Board chairperson Michelle Barnett said the building houses several classrooms.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said scene guards have been in place overnight and crews will be returning during daylight hours.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon. Photo: SUPPLIED Two young people have been charged with arson over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-274314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}