Four Square Waipawa fire: Oven fire in bakery seen as cause, says owner

Jason Wray, building owner of Waipawa Four Square, stands among the debris. Photo / Paul Taylor

Four Square Waipawa building owner Jason Wray is confident they will rebuild, following an early-morning fire that gutted the premises on May 30.

Eight fire tankers, four tankers and three support vehicles attended the blaze in High St about 4.30am.

Wray told Hawke's Bay Today the fire started after an oven caught fire in the bakery, but he was thankful no one suffered major injuries.

Debris being cleared off the Waipawa Four Square site. Photo / Supplied

He said two bakery staff had begun work at 2am on the day and were inside the building at the time, but were uninjured.

"We are waiting on insurance, so I can't put a dollar figure on the cost to rebuild," he said.

"We have started preliminary drawings, and procurement of labour and material. The tentative start for rebuilding is August.

"I would ideally like the rebuild to take one year from the fire date, sooner if we can."

He said the intention was to build on the same site.

"The build itself would be pretty much the same as what it was before the fire," he said.

"The council have been exceptional with preliminary consents."

The premises of Waipawa Four Square are being prepped for a rebuild. Photo / Supplied

He said the rebuild would require up to 30 "subbies" and there were six on the site already making the building safe.

Wray was grateful for the help of tradespeople and mentioned Higgins, Isaacs Electrical and Phoenix Contracting.

"They have helped with debris removal, plumbing and electrical termination and reconnection, Centralines are putting in a new power box/transformer, because we lost the old one in the blaze," he said.

New World Waipukurau owner Gerard Kennedy extended an open invitation for support and work for Four Square Waipawa staff at its Russell St site.

Kennedy, a self-proclaimed "Four Square guy" after owning a store in Taranaki for six years, previously said the offer of personal and professional help was a "no-brainer" for a store with employees in need of help.

"It was something we could do to provide certainty for them all as they have bills to pay and family to care for."

Hopefully by June next year, says the building's owner. Photo / Supplied

It's exactly the sort of community support that staff of out-of-school care centre Lulu and Max Waipawa, which was in the adjoining premises, are grateful for.

"We had extensive smoke and water damage, and we lost pretty much everything," Tessa Flowers-Morrell, founder and managing director said.

"We'd only moved there in October and it was such a cool space for children.

"We are quite lucky that we have been able to run out of Waipawa Primary School until term-end.

"We are so thankful for all the support we have received from the community, the council and local schools.

"The Warehouse donated two trolley-loads of gifts for the children like games and books. Things that we lost in the fire.

"The council has been amazing trying to find a new space for us to run."

In the aftermath of the fire and its impact on the community, Waipawa Butchery owner Duncan Smith said the team had been delivering to the elderly for free, and would continue to do so even after the rebuild.

"It's what you do, we are looking out for our elderly," Smith said.

"We've done half a dozen local deliveries so far and we are hoping it picks up."