Woman charged with burning down rural NSW town’s Christmas tree
A teenager has been charged after allegedly burning down a council Christmas tree, leaving a struggling rural NSW town devastated just a few weeks before the holiday.
The decorated tree was put up on Belgrave Street in Kempsey, north-west of Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast, just a week before it burned down last year.
Kempsey’s Christmas tree was burnt down last year. Facebook
Emergency services were called to the site about 11.15pm on December 3 to find the large council Christmas tree “well alight”.
They tried to extinguish the flames but the tree was destroyed.
At the time, Mayor Kinne Ring said residents were understandably upset due to the “immensely tough” year they’d had, but added the incident would bring the town together.
"We are deeply disappointed and saddened for our community and for the council staff who, over many months, worked hard to procure, decorate and install the tree after what has been a challenging year for the shire," the council said in a statement at the time, referencing the floods that had battered the region.
Kempsey residents upset by the burning down of the tree took to social media to condemn what happened.
Mayor Kinne Ring was upset that the Christmas tree was burnt down. Nine
"Such a shame, was a beautiful Christmas tree, nicest one we have had," one said last December.
NSW Police on Tuesday charged a 19-year-old woman with destroying property in company using fire.
She is due to face Kempsey Local Court on November 19.
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