Multiple fire crews attended a fire at the Kathleen Kilgour Centre last night. Photo / Sandra Conchie
Multiple fire crews attended a fire at the Kathleen Kilgour Centre last night. Photo / Sandra Conchie
The cause of a small fire at a Tauranga cancer treatment centre which resulted in significant water damage on the ground floor is yet to be established.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff responded to multiple reports of smoke coming from the Kathleen Kilgour Centre at Tauranga Hospital just before 6pm last night.
The Kathleen Kilgour Centre is a radiation therapy centre treating both public and private patients from across the Bay of Plenty.
Fire and Emergency NZ senior station officer Len Sabin told the Bay of Plenty Times last night fire crews responded to multiple 111 calls from the hospital about smoke seen coming from the ground floor area of the facility on 20th Avenue.
The ground floor of the centre was full of smoke on arrival, he said.
"We soon established there was a small fire in the ceiling void which had been partly extinguished by the sprinkler system and the building had already been fully evacuated."
The fire was fully extinguished just after 7pm and fire crews remained on scene to help with the salvage operation, Sabin said.
Four fire appliances from Tauranga station, two from Greerton, one from Mount Maunganui, and two from Rotorua attended the fire. Firefighters left the scene about 9pm.
Road cordons barring entry for motorists to the fire scene were put in place at the intersections of 20th Avenue with Cameron Rd and Clark St.
No one was injured in the fire, Sabin said.
"We are really pleased that all the safety systems and fire suppression systems worked really well, meaning the fire was contained to the ground floor."
However, Sabin estimated there was about 200sq m of water damage, and the exact cause of the fire was being investigated.
The cause of a small fire at the Kathleen Kilgour Centre in 20th Avenue is yet to be established. Photo / Sandra Conchie
Kathleen Kilgour Centre's chief executive, Letham White, said more than 90 per cent of the centre's work was providing services for Bay of Plenty District Health Board funded clients.
White said he was about to leave the centre for the day when he and staff smelt smoke.
"By the time I walked downstairs the smoke had spread and a couple of sprinklers in the area of the very small fire came on and we began evacuating the building."
White said the fire was in a ceiling cavity in the corridor near one of the centre's nursing stations on the ground floor.
Last night some contractors helped pump some of the water out and by 11pm the centre had humidifiers operating to help dry out the carpet and roofing cavity, he said.
White said today the centre was closed to patients and staff on site were helping reschedule appointments.
He said the humidifiers were still doing their jobs today and he hoped to be in a position to retest all the safety systems this afternoon and reopen the centre tomorrow.
White said the firefighters, his staff and contractors who responded to the fire had done an "exceptional" job.
