Merv Neil says the blast felt like a big kick up the backside. As he struggled to his feet he was engulfed in an orange ball of flame. Shielding himself, he briefly looked up to see an enormous cloud of smoke in the sky.
Council planners have scuttled subdivision plans by the former director of a company whose coolstore building on the outskirts of Hamilton exploded 10 years ago, causing death and injury to firefighters.
But former Icepak Coolstores director Wayne Grattan has appealed the decision. Mediation is set to occur in the next two weeks, but he admits it's likely to head to the Environment Court as he doubts either party will budge.
News of Grattan's purchase and subsequent plans for the Tamahere site angered locals.
Grattan was one of the directors of Icepak Coolstores Ltd, which changed its name to Waikato Coldstorage Ltd after the fatal blaze at its site on April 5, 2008.
The explosion killed Senior Station Officer Derek Lovell and seriously injured the remaining seven of his firefighting colleagues.
What the coolstore site looked like when photographed by the Herald this week. Photo/Alan Gibson
Arnold Koppens, who gave evidence at the hearing, lives directly across the road from the site and is furious with the plans.
"The rules are that you cannot subdivide unless you get council permission. Council don't want to set a precedent and he was arguing that it was a unique site. The only thing unique about it is all the filth that's there.
"Every time it rains, it still smells of cheese, 10 years later. He has not let us forget and I think that it's sad. It's never been over for us. As a community nothing has moved on because all you see is rats and skateboarders and rubbish.
"I don't know how many rats my dogs have killed over the years."
The council's main opposition to the proposal was around plot sizes.
Under the council's Tamahere Country Living zone there is a 5000m2 minimum plot size.
Former Icepak director Wayne Grattan says he's unimpressed with the Waikato District Council's unwillingness to budge on the plot sizes. Photo/File
Grattan, who unsuccessfully went for the Act Party's Otaki seat at last year's election, proposed to subdivide the 2.1154ha property into six plots ranging between 2793m2 and 3907m2.
When contacted, Grattan said the subdivision was a vision of his that he wanted to see completed. He wasn't bothered by upset residents.
"Mr Koppens seems to think that I should go away but from my perspective it was something that I started a long time ago and we had to deal with the issues at the time and really, I wanted to finish the process off, rather than leave it and walk away from it."
He admitted the site was untidy but he said his hands were tied while he was in negotiations with the council.
He was unimpressed with the council's unwillingness to budge on the large plot sizes.
"I find it pretty unacceptable really."
The Icepak Coolstores buildings on fire on April 5, 2008. Photo/File
If the council was declining it for copycat reasons, then perhaps he was onto something.
"It's been declined because other people might want to do the same thing, well, to be frank, if lots of other people want to do the same thing then perhaps the council is out of touch with the community."
He didn't want to increase the plot sizes.
"I don't want to. I don't think it's a sensible use of the site ... it doesn't really work for me."
He had moved on since the blaze and hoped others would to.
"I've moved on from those people that can't move on, really. We accepted responsibility for what happened 10 years ago and as I say, if other people can't recognise that mistakes were made and responsibility was accepted then that's their issue, really."
