Kaitaia's old bowling club burns

The old bowling club pavilion was well involved by the time the first fire appliance arrived. Photo / Peter Jackson

The upper floor of the old Kaitaia Bowling Club pavilion in Matthews' Avenue 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 it under control.

The northern end of the building 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.

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.

Meanwhile the two brigades despatched 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 50 metres away on either side of the property had hampered their efforts slightly.

He had no doubt that the fire had started in the kitchen at the northern end of the floor. Attempts to contact senior fire risk management officer Gary Beer, who examined the damage later in the day, were unsuccessful.

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.