A 'reckless party” which saw a Christmas tree trampled and set on fire saw 23 tourists, mostly German and French, evicted from Te Puke Backpackers days before Christmas.

Te Puke Backpackers manager Tracey Wallace-Hutchins says they were evicted for causing the hostel to be engulfed in what she says was thick, toxic smoke, as well as endangering people's lives.

The remains of the Christmas tree after being torched.

The Christmas tree was knocked over and laid on before being set alight.

A huge two metre commercial artificial Christmas tree with decorations and lights intact was removed from the hostel lounge, left directly beside the entrance to the hostel and set on fire.

This caused the hostel to be engulfed with gas and smoke at about 1.30 am, Sunday, December 21, while a number of people were sleeping in the hostel.

Tracey says while the fire alarm system was going (sounding as it should) someone also broke into the secured fire alarm system box and pulled wires out all over the system and tampered with and disabled sirens in various rooms and the entire fire alarm and backup system.

'Police attended and after spending about four hours going through the CCTV footage and interviewing people present only one witness offered any useful information. The others present all said they knew nothing and refused to give up the offenders. 'One person admitted to seriously damaging the sounder in his room. We believe this person is the primary offender) as he has been bragging to others how he lit the Christmas Tree and also disabled the fire alarm and thinks it is a real joke.”

Tracey says many people were asleep at the time and could have been killed. People evacuated the building coughing and gagging from the thick, toxic smoke that engulfed the building.

'Many people described the terrifying event as horrific, many were unable to breath and were left with extremely sore throats and eyes the following day.”

Tracey says they want the person or people responsible for the fire to be 'brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law”.

She feels they should be hunted down by both police and immigration and brought to justice.

'They should have their working holiday visas revoked and be kicked out of the country. We don't want unruly, reckless tourist killing our hospitality, business and generally spoiling things for all the nice well decent tourists,” says Tracey.

'We are still recovering from the last four years of living with devastating effects Psa, we do not need to put up with unruly, reckless and outright dangerous characters like this. Other accommodation providers beware.”

Tracey says they are still working on establishing the full extent of the costs incurred from the damage.

'Who burns a Christmas tree days before Christmas and endangers the lives of people and brags about it?

'Most (of the tourists) have moved on now to Paihea, Raglan, Hastings and other parts of the country now.”

Tracey hopes sharing what happened in December 21 will be a warning for other tourist providers.

The Christmas tree was taken from the hostel and set on fire.