Fire at Kaiti Fish Shop put out in the nick of time

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Firefighters were called to the Kaiti Fish Shop in the Kaiti Mall on Sunday night after a fire started in cooking equipment, and travelled up the extraction system into the roof space.

Fire and Emergency NZ sent two appliances to the shop just before 8pm.

“The alarm was raised by members of the public who saw flames coming out of the extraction system,” a senior firefighter said.

“We were able to get there in time to stop it spreading.”

The building was quite smoke-logged when they arrived.

“We had to ventilate the shop first to see where the fire was,” he said.

They found there was material still burning above the extraction system inside the roof void.

“We were able to put it out reasonably quickly, once the smoke had been cleared.

“There was fairly minor fire damage caused to the cooking equipment, the extraction system and in the roof void.”

The senior firefighter said the cleaners, who were inside the shop at the time, evacuated the building quickly and were not affected by the fire.

The fire crews were there for a couple of hours.