{"id":399152,"date":"2026-04-27T00:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399152\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T00:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:48:19","slug":"five-men-charged-after-alleged-meth-lab-goes-up-in-flames-in-taupo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399152\/","title":{"rendered":"Five men charged after alleged meth lab goes up in flames in Taup\u014d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several men are facing charges of manufacturing methamphetamine after a Taup\u014d building blaze yesterday morning that left four people injured.<\/p>\n

Police said they became aware of the fire on Tauhara Rd at around 5.40am on Sunday, “which is believed to have been deliberately lit.”<\/p>\n

Video posted on social media showed flames towering into the sky from the blaze, near a local BP petrol station. <\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant Ryan Yardley said, “police believe the property was used to manufacture methamphetamine” after initial inquiries were made into the fire.<\/p>\n

\""A<\/p>\n

“A scene guard was in place overnight and will remain while inquiries continue,” police said. (Source: Underground Taupo, Turangi, Tokoroa, Rotorua Facebook page )<\/p>\n

Five men, aged 28 to 73, were due in the Taup\u014d District Court later today, charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and wilfully setting fire to a property and endangering life, according to a police spokesperson. <\/p>\n

“Police continue to investigate the circumstances around the incident, including conducting a scene examination,” Yardley said.<\/p>\n

“A scene guard was in place overnight and will remain while inquiries continue.”<\/p>\n

Three patients in a moderate condition were taken to Taup\u014d Hospital following the fire, a St John spokesperson told 1News yesterday.<\/p>\n

Ambulance crews also assessed and treated one patient in a minor condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several men are facing charges of manufacturing methamphetamine after a Taup\u014d building blaze yesterday morning that left four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,1756,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-399152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-tauranga-bay-of-plenty","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399152","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=399152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}