Flames erupt from the upper floor of Kaitaia's old bowling club pavilion. Photo / Peter Jackson
Flames erupt from the upper floor of Kaitaia's old bowling club pavilion. Photo / Peter Jackson
Kaitaia's old Bowling Club pavilion has been badly damaged by fire but the tenants escaped unharmed thanks to a visitor's heroic actions.
The upper floor of the Matthews Ave building was well ablaze when the alarm was raised at 6.01am on Friday, but crews from the Kaitaia and Ahipara fire brigades quickly had it under control.
The northern end of the pavilion was badly damaged, however, with heavy smoke and water damage throughout the rest of the floor.
The ground floor did not appear to be damaged.
Friday morning's fire at the old Kaitaia Bowling Club, as seen from the town pool. Photo / Naomi Austen-Reid
A tenant who was living on the upper floor, and four other people who were there at the time, had escaped unharmed before the first appliance arrived.
A friend of the tenant, who was one of those who were in the building, gave huge credit to another visitor, Wayne Wright, who was woken by the sound of windows smashing and "literally" dragged two of the others to safety, then returned to wake the others.
"Basically he saved our lives," she said.
"The fire was well established by then, and by the time he got the first two out and came back the room was engulfed. It was that fast."
The fire had started in the kitchen, she added, and was believed to have been the result of an electrical fault.
Firefighters clean up after the blaze at the old Kaitaia Bowling Cub. Photo / Peter Jackson
The two brigades dispatched four appliances and a water tanker to the blaze, Kaitaia's deputy chief fire officer Ross Beddows saying they had achieved a "good save", although the fact that the nearest fire hydrants were 50m away on either side of the property had hampered their efforts slightly.
He had no doubt the fire had started in the kitchen at the northern end of the floor.
The building, Beddows added, had been very well secured. Firefighters armed with axes had been unable to break through a door at that end of the building to attack the fire from inside, but gained access via a door at the other end, which the occupants had used to escape.
Bolt cutters were used to gain access to the ground floor. The fire crews were packing up by 7.30am.
It is some years since the bowling club sold the property, which in November 2017 became a youth space operated by Te Hiku Hauora. That lease has since ended. The property is understood to be owned by an American couple.
