Dudfield Bryce Printers fire sees 13 jobs lost, owner shocked

Former Dudfield Bryce employees Richard Greenfield (left), Tracey Ball, Sheryl Howard and Anesone Bragovits are still looking for work since a fire destroyed the business. Photo / Stephen Parker

A fire at a Rotorua printing company has left its managing director shocked and staff hunting for jobs six weeks after the incident.

Dudfield Bryce Printers caught fire on August 10 due to an unidentified electrical issue.

Managing director John Spring said the experience was shocking and had meant the closure of the business.

He said the damage to the White St building was extensive.

"Walking into the building, the whole place is just black. There was a bit around the immediate vicinity of the fire, then throughout the whole building there was soot ... water and smoke damage."

Spring said the cause of the fire had been a faulty fluorescent light.

"We originally bought Bryce Printers in 2007 and then we bought Dudfield Printers, then combined the two.

"It was a real shock. The worst part of it is the loss of jobs. We had 13 staff that lost their jobs in a week."

The interior of the building was gutted by the fire.

Spring also has a commercial printers in Whakatāne and said he had paid staff redundancy packages and offered some work in Whakatāne.

A former worker at the printers, who wanted to be anonymous, said the loss had felt like a funeral.

"It felt like a funeral, a bereavement. As it went on the more it hit home it was the end of an era."

Another former employee, Sheryl Howard, said there wasn't any animosity about the loss of work but felt customers weren't aware of the closure and employees were struggling to find jobs.

"No one knows there's been a fire. We're looking for work. Most of us are 50-plus.

"There's no animosity, it's more we can't find work."

The interior of the building was gutted by the fire.

Richard Greenfield said they felt left "high and dry" and he was gutted by the fire.

"For some of us printing is all we've done. I served my time in Rotorua, I've been a printer here all my life."

Rotorua fire investigator Linda McHugh said she the fire was caused by an unidentified electrical issue - possibly a fluorescent light.

McHugh says fluorescent light fires can be an issue.

She knew of at least 10 in a year while she was working in Auckland.

"It's often the older ones we seem to have a problem with. It's good if a building does have fluorescent lights to get them checked."