Owner of Nola's Orchard shop thanks community following devastating fire, plans to rebuild

Smoke streaming from Nola's Orchard on West Coast Rd. Photo / Supplied

The owner of a West Auckland fruit and vegetable store that was gutted by fire last week has thanked the community for their support.

Ivan Nolatook to Facebook to "thank everyone for the incredible support [they] have received since the fire".

"The amount of kind words, clean up offers, babysitting offers, flowers and food we have received has been almost overwhelming. There have been hundreds of messages," he wrote.

"I already knew we lived in a great community but I've never been prouder or more grateful to be part of it. So thank you all."

Decimated egg cartons and charred loaves of bread amongst the rubble. Photo / Nola's Orchard Facebook

Nola's Orchard in Oratia was gutted by a blaze about 7.10am on December 26.

The fire at the 14m x 14m building on West Coast Rd was "well-involved" when crews arrived.

Ivan Nola is the third generation of his family to run the business which opened in the 1930s.

An initial investigation into the fire indicated an electrical fault in the stand-alone fridges where the meat is stored.

In his post, Nola said the fire seemed to have started in a socket on the back wall where the meat and chicken chiller was plugged in.

"It spread throughout the building leaving almost nothing untouched. Because of this we will be levelling the entire shop," he wrote.

A blown-out freezer stands amongst the rubble at Nola's Orchard. Photo / Nola's Orchard Facebook

Nola said the family will rebuild the business, but the time that would take was unknown.

"When that will start and how long it will take is anyone's guess right now though. We will keep posting updates as we go," he wrote.

"In the meantime if anyone has any jobs for our lovely staff I'm sure they would very much appreciate it."

Photos accompanying the post show the devastation the fire caused within the store; with the interior and everything in it blackened by soot.

Plastic containers containing potatoes can be seen dripping and melted by the fire's heat, egg cartons decimated and fridges blown out.

In one photo, a lone fire extinguisher remains hanging to a charred post, acutely ironic within its surroundings.

Ruined produce and melted storage boxes in the fruit and vegetable shop. Photo / Nola's Orchard Facebook

The fire at Nola's was the first of three big fires in Auckland over five days.

The next day, on December 27, up to 50,000 chickens were killed in a fire which burnt part of a West Auckland poultry farm to the ground.

Firefighters were called to Stoney Creek farm on Opanaku Rd about 1.30am and arrived to find three hatchery sheds ablaze. The sheds measured about 150m x 50m.

Nine fire crews worked to put out the blaze until about 4am.

The three sheds were razed and none of the chickens in the hatcheries which caught fire survived the blaze.

Three days later, on December 30, a huge fire engulfed St James Presbyterian Church hall in Mt Eden.

Up to 15 fire engines and dozens of crew members worked to bring the inferno under control after they were alerted just after 5pm.

The church hall, which was closed by an Auckland Council dangerous building notice in 2012, was believed to have been abandoned and no one was inside.

There were suspicions it had been started by squatters or vandals.

Ivan Nola said the fire seemed to have started in a socket on the back wall where the meat and chicken chiller was plugged in. Photo / Nola's Orchard Facebook