Loafers Lodge hostel fire in Wellington: Hearse arrives as police recover two bodies

Police have recovered two bodies from Loafers Lodge today after Tuesday’s deadly fire tore through the Wellington hostel.

The first hearse arrived at the charred shell of the building this afternoon as police began their recovery of those who lost their lives in the blaze.

Police this afternoon said they had recovered two bodies and that recovery of others would happen tomorrow.

Emergency services formed a guard of honour along a footpath near the hostel awaiting the first body to be brought out. Those present started a karakia for the person.

Police began a scene examination this morning but said the damage on the third floor was “significant” and there was a lot of debris for search crews to sift through.

“We are doing everything to recover the deceased from Loafers Lodge as quickly as we can,” acting district commander Inspector Dion Bennett said.

The investigation into the suspected arson is in its third day, with the total number of deaths still unconfirmed.

Emergency services have formed a guard of honour along a footpath near the hostel as they await the first body to be removed from Loafers Lodge. Photo / George Heard

Police also confirmed that Adelaide Road will partially re-open from 6 am tomorrow.

The southbound lane will be open, under stop-go traffic management.

Claim of heavy price for ‘substandard conditions’

The sister of a man who used to live at Loafers Lodge said he was charged $250 a week to stay in “shamefully sub-standard” conditions.

The lodge director wouldn’t comment on claims of poor conditions and high prices, but noted there were bound to be “disgruntled” people in a place that could house “90-odd people”.

The woman’s brother, Andrew, was a previous resident of the hostel, on Adelaide Rd in Newtown.

New Zealanders needed to do more to keep vulnerable people out of poor accommodation, she said.

“We as a society have failed our most vulnerable people.”

Her brother lived at “that horrendous lodge” for several months about three years ago, and the woman, who did not want to be named, said she still remembered the poor conditions from the times she visited him.

She and her loved ones bought a flat for Andrew to live in until his unrelated death last year.

“We got him out of that place as soon as we could.”

Loafers Lodge after the deadly fire that swept through the building on Adelaide Rd, Wellington. Photo / George Heard

She said Andrew was being charged $250 a week for a dirty room with a window that didn’t shut and allowed rain and traffic fumes in. Each floor shared a bathroom and there were communal kitchens and living areas.

“You had to wait and queue up for a turn at the stove.”

Other boarding houses in Wellington with communal kitchens and bathrooms currently have rooms listed at prices ranging from $190 to $265 a week, expenses included.

She remembered Andrew’s concern for a quiet and gentle woman in the room next to his, who barely ventured out due to her fear of “the level of alcoholic male violence in the place”.

When Andrew moved in, there was white poison powder on the carpets to kill bed bugs, with a sign warning people not to vacuum up the powder. It was still there weeks later when his sister visited Andrew again.

When Andrew finally managed to move into the flat his family organised for him, his possessions were infested with bed bugs, which continued to cause him discomfort up until his death.

Loafers Lodge, a 92-room, short-term accommodation block, had fire alarms, a smoke extraction system and two exit stairwells, but did not have sprinklers.

The building passed its most recent warrant of fitness and was not required to have sprinklers.

The one advantage of the hostel was that some residents seemed to take comfort in being among others who were going through similar tough times, and in knowing they weren’t on the street, Andrew’s sister said.

Flames were seen shooting from Loafers Lodge in Wellington after a fatal fire on Tuesday. Photo / Sunnie Chan

Watching the news of the fire on TV brought her to tears.

“I was sketching the few faces I remembered, how likely some of those are amongst the dead. If Andrew had been still living there, he probably would have been amongst the dead too ... he was on the upper floor.”

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge – among those on the frontline offering support to survivors – described the hostel yesterday as not the “most salubrious”.

“By definition, most of them [residents] had some vulnerabilities,” he told the Herald.

“And that is why they were staying in that particular place. You wouldn’t stay there unless you had very few options.

“It wasn’t the most salubrious place you could stay, obviously.

“But it was still a community of people, and they were still housed.”

The Herald put questions about the pricing and condition of the accommodation to Loafers Lodge director Gregory Mein.

He said the management team looked after the day-to-day running of the lodge, so he was unable to comment on specific allegations.

“If you’ve got 90-odd people, there’s bound to be a couple of disgruntled ones in there and, as I said, we deal with a myriad of different people from different walks of life, who have different needs, and you know, one person might feel aggrieved, I don’t know.

“But they [did] have the right, of course, if they didn’t like it, to leave.

“We don’t keep anyone there who doesn’t want to be kept there. We try to assist them as much as we can.”