Inferno claims native timber store

A MARTON building owner is staying positive despite losing $200,000 worth of native timber in a fire on Wednesday night.
A pile of buckled corrugated iron atop a heap of smoking rubble was all that remained of the Kensington Rd former Benchmark building almost totally destroyed by fire.
The most spectacular property fire Marton has seen in years was fed by stacks of timber ? rimu, matai and totara ? in the main storeroom.
The timber had an estimated commercial value around $200,000 but was not insured.
The Benchmark building was part of the former Carter Holt Harvey timber milling and processing complex now owned by the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), whose Arahina base backs on to the site.
IBLP is an international charitable organisation, founded in America, that works with at-risk youth.
Institute director Jim Wenstrom told the Chronicle the native timber was being usedin a skills programme to make furniture for the institute. It had been salvaged from old houses that had been donated to the organisation for demolition.
"People might have seen it as a derelict building, but what was inside was really valuable," Mr Wenstrom said.
His organisation's immediate plan was to clean up the site and make it safe before deciding what to do in the longer term.
The building was to have been demolished anyway as part of the institute's progressive clean-up of the CHH site in preparation for other planned developments.
Mr Wenstrom said that, apart from the loss of the stored timber, the fire could be viewed as a mixed blessing.
"But that is not the way we would have chosen to remove it," he said.
The building itself featured large timber beams that would have been salvaged in the demolition process, but they too had now been lost.
He said that while the fire was "disconcerting" the institute had been overwhelmed by the level of support from the community and was "thinking positively" about the future.
Mr Wenstrom also had full praise for the three Marton volunteer fire brigade crews and the back-up crew from Bulls that fought the blaze.
"It was just awesome to see the team at work. If it had been my house, I would have been very grateful for that response," he said.
Marton fire chief Paul Hudson said arson was suspected, but because of the extent of the damage it was unlikely the actual cause would be determined.
The building was unoccupied and not connected to the electricity supply.
Dusty Miller, a Marton Junction resident and long-time campaigner to have the CHH site cleared was not surprised by the fire.
"I wouldn't say it was inevitable, but kids have been getting in there for ages and (the site) is well used as a thoroughfare so I am not really surprised. I just hope now they bulldoze the whole lot down because it has been an eyesore for years," he said.