Derelict-cinema blaze suspicious

An abandoned Rotorua cinema complex frequented by homeless people was badly damaged in a suspicious fire early yesterday.

There were fears that someone might be inside when the blaze was reported about midnight.

"We were pretty confident within an hour or so that no one was in there but we didn't confirm that until about 4am," said Rotorua fire chief Wayne Bedford.

Authorities knew that streetkids inhabited the neglected three-storey building in Pukuatua St, he said, where there had been five "nuisance fires" - mainly rubbish - in the last two years.

Yesterday's fire, thought to have started inside, followed another suspected arson in Christchurch on Sunday that destroyed an old building also used by the homeless.

In Rotorua, access to the smoke-logged theatre was difficult and about 40 firefighters were called in from the city, Ngongotaha, Mamaku, Tokoroa and Tirau.

They spent most of the night at the scene and a crew was still dampening down hot-spots later in the morning.

Flames had swept through all three floors, gutting an auditorium and a projector corridor. They spread down a stairwell and up into the roof, which had to be ripped off.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Bedford said the Rotorua District Council had been advised that the Fire Service would only do exterior fire fighting at the derelict cinema in future because it was too dangerous inside.

Earlier fires had left holes in floors and the building had suffered general neglect, he said.

The 11-year-old central city multiplex theatre has long been an eyesore, bedevilled by controversy and changing ownership.

Contractors who had not been paid removed air-conditioning units and the cinema was closed after only a few days' use.

It was the subject of legal battles over structural and safety issues for years and a "For sale" sign appeared on the site last month.

Back in 1997, the district council ordered the building to be pulled down after an engineer's report said it would collapse in a moderate earthquake.

But a District Court judge ruled that an anomaly in the Building Act prevented him considering earthquakes when deciding whether the building was dangerous.

He gave the council power to ensure the structure was safe.

Unstable heavy sheets of exterior fibrolite cladding were removed and the cinema was covered in polythene to shield it from the weather.

"We have boarded it up and fenced it off, but we have been aware homeless people took the risk of going in there," said the council's building control manager, Pat Lawrence.

"We have been to court on a number of occasions and it has cost ratepayers a lot of money."