DOUG LAING
Model train buff Peter Bulford made possibly the most important call of his life when he raised the alarm which saved one of Napier's oldest inner-city buildings from fire yesterday.
The proprietor of Trainworld was about to lock-up his popular display upstairs in the old Gaiety Theatre building in Dickens Street when he noticed the smoke about 4.30pm, called 111 and evacuated himself and four staff.
As smoke started billowing from the roof, five appliances from Napier, Taradale and Hastings arrived. Firefighters were sent up to the roof via the snorkel unit and a central city block was closed to all but emergency crews as dozens watched the start of a four-hour effort to save the 100-year-old building.
But Fire Service acting deputy chief officer Brian Dunphy said that ultimately it had looked much worse than it was, only one hose was used, and if no-one had been in the building at the time, Napier could have been farewelling what had been the heart of the city's entertainment scene for much of last century.
The building was not alarmed and, if not for Mr Bulford's call, a much more serious fire could have resulted, he said. The drama is thought to have originated from a kitchen fire in Alakebabs, a ground-floor restaurant.
The Fire Service was called to that fire at 2.04pm and it was quickly extinguished.
The premises had been vacated by the time Mr Bulford made his discovery 2 1/2 hours later.
Mr Dunphy said it appeared the initial fire had flared through a flue up the outside of the building, and embers must have blown back under the eaves.
When firefighters arrived after Mr Bulford's call at 4.34pm, they found the only way they could gain access to the roof was with the snorkel.
They believed the fire would have smouldered for most of the time before igniting building paper in the roof. That had quickly burnt-out but the dry roofing timber had started to ignite.
While making sure the fire was out, much of the work was to protect the priceless train collection and displays from the water being used in the roof.
About three hours after his hasty exit, and waiting in the street for the opportunity to return to start cleaning-up, Mr Bulford said: "It doesn't seem too bad. The fire service is doing a bloody good job trying to minimise the damage."
The building is thought to have started life as a skating venue in the early 1900s, and became a picture theatre after the 1931 earthquake, but historically is possibly best known as the Top Hat nightclub which was a must for any nationally-known act worth their salt in the rock and roll era of the 1950s and 1960s. Trainworld has been there since 2001.
Embers ignite second fire
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