KEY POINTS:
Laundry owner Dave Hurt's desire to get an early start on van loads of dirty linen from Auckland's restaurants nearly cost him his life on Saturday night.
Mr Hurt, 66, was sleeping in the office above his Olympic Commercial Laundry in Grey Lynn when he was woken by smoke.
"I went downstairs to the front door which was deadlocked," he said.
"I realised then the trousers I pulled on didn't have the keys in the pockets - and I couldn't go back up there.
"Luckily, a fireman arrived at the door and let me out.
"It was all smoke and the place was well ablaze within half an hour."
The fire about 10.30pm quickly gutted the concrete building, though efforts to stop it spreading to adjacent buildings were successful.
Looking at the collapsed, burned roof of his MacKelvie St building of 35 years, Mr Hurt said the fire came at the busiest time of year for the laundry and linen hire business, which serves 150 restaurants.
"We are flat out. I was going to light the boiler and get a few loads done before the staff come in at 5am."
Instead, he ended up in hospital getting stitches for a gash on his arm suffered when the locked door was broken down. The laundry has a staff of 22 and Mr Hurt said arrangements were being made to work from an alternative premises. The business was insured.
Senior fire safety officer Roy Warren said an investigation underway pointed to accidental rather than a suspicious cause.
"Mr Hurt is lucky to be alive," he said. "We are trying to get the message across that if you have deadlocks, leave the keys in when you are home."
