Wharekai lost to flames

A Northland hapu is sad their wharekai (dining room) was destroyed in a fire, but the good work of hapu members saved the larger, and more important, wharenui from the same fate.

The wharekai at Waikara Marae, on Waikara Rd, Aranga, north of Dargaville, was destroyed in a fire that started about 6pm on Sunday, Dargaville deputy station officer Michael Ross said.

Mr Ross said hapu members were down on the beach below the marae when they saw smoke from the blaze.

He said they rushed to the marae and used buckets of water to prevent the fire spreading to the nearby wharenui, where valuable taonga were stored, while the alarm was raised with the Fire Service.

Mr Ross said when firefighters arrived the wharekai was virtually destroyed and there was nothing that could be done to save the building, which was similar to an extended double garage.

"They managed to save the wharenui. They did a great job with buckets of water to stop the flames spreading. It would have been far worse if (the wharenui) had gone up, but they lost the chiller and everything in the wharekai," he said.

Firefighters spent well over an hour at the scene dampening down hot spots and waiting for a fire safety investigator to visit and check for the cause of the fire, which was not known at edition time yesterday.

Marae members were yesterday at the scene and unavailable to comment on the fire.

In March an electrical fire destroyed the wharekai at the Whakapara Marae.