How the van caught fire yesterday morning is being investigated and is considered suspicious. Photo / Supplied
How the van caught fire yesterday morning is being investigated and is considered suspicious. Photo / Supplied
Kawakawa's medical centre is closed today and the Rayner St facility will likely not be used for a month after a suspicious fire caused damage to the building.
At 6.13am yesterday, emergency services were alerted to a fire behind the Ngāti Hine Health Trust managed facility. A van, situated close to the north-eastern side of the building, had caught fire and caused significant damage to the facility's ceiling area.
Fire engines crowd the Kawakawa medical centre on Sunday morning. Photo / Supplied
More than 20 fire officers from Kawakawa, Paihia and Kerikeri attended the blaze, which is being treated as suspicious.
Specialist fire investigator for Muriwhenua, Jason Goffin confirmed the fire was under investigation by police. Much of the damage was confined to the ceiling area, he said.
Most of the damage to the building is in the ceiling area. Photo / Supplied
While the heat and smoke damage was significant, Goffin was glad the building had not been damaged beyond repair.
However, he said it would be some time before the facility could be operational again.
"Because of all the smoke ingress, it wouldn't be safe to occupy it, especially for people with respiratory illnesses and stuff like that, you wouldn't want to be breathing any of that stuff in," Goffin said.
"I assume it's going to be out of operation for a significant amount of time until they get it repaired, which is a real tragedy because it's a community entity used to treat the sick and injured."
The fire from the van caused damage to the building. Photo / Supplied
Ngāti Hine Health Trust chief executive Geoff Milner speculated the Rayner St facility would not be used for about a month as the damage was assessed and repaired.
However, Milner was confident the centre's patients would not go wanting as staff today would be setting up another site, 2 Vogel St, as a makeshift practice until it was possible to return to Rayner St.
"[The fire] is disappointing and it's really more a distraction for us that tomorrow, when we would have been focused on serving our whānau, is now being parked up so we can relocate," he said.
"[It's] another thing we didn't need but 2020 is one of those years."
Milner said the Vogel St facility used to be the original Kawakawa medical centre, but had since been transformed and recently renovated to act as a facility which offered a range of health services.
Commercial cleaners and insurance assessors had been at the facility yesterday. The nursing clinics set to run today had been cancelled and Milner believed the Vogel St facility would be functional by tomorrow.
"One thing about Māori [health] providers is that we shake it off, get on with it and move on to the next day."
Commercial cleaners have been at the centre to clean up the mess caused by the fire being extinguishing. Photo / Supplied
Milner was confident the centre would be supported by neighbouring GP practices in sourcing medical resources.
"I'm sure our team will be reaching out to our neighbours to get some supplies until we can replace them," he said.
"That's the wonderful thing about working in a community like Kawakawa and Moerewa, everybody gets in behind it."
