10 hours to extinguish fire
The morning after fire swept through a well-known Taranaki wood processing business, the damage was clear to see.
The building occupied by Inglewood Timber Processors was gutted, with charred piles of timber and blackened machinery, while parts of the iron roof were hanging down, swinging in the wind.
But the cause of the blaze, which broke out about 4.45pm on Tuesday and took Fire and Emergency NZ 10 hours to completely extinguish, is still under investigation.
Manager and shareholder Mark Jackson said he had spent ‘‘pretty much all’’ of yesterday with fire assessors at the site, in the heart of Inglewood, and would meet with them again today.
‘‘Some things are OK but then we don’t know because of the water damage – we don’t know until we get in there,’’ he said.
The business, on the corner of Kelly St and Cutfield St, near State Highway 3, makes products including door cores and scaffolding planks and employs 12 people.
Jackson said he couldn’t assess the situation further until they were given the okay to reenter the premises.
His staff had yesterday off but they would be brought together shortly to talk about where things were at, he said.
The workers would be on holiday from tomorrow until January 20, he said.
‘‘It has sunk in – it will probably sink in a bit more through Christmas when everyone’s going back to work and we’re trying to sort out a burnt building,’’ he said.
Despite the devastation Jackson said he was grateful to the local community for their support and thankful that friends and family had offered to help.
For Nathan Hitchcock, the fire brought memories flooding back.
In 2013, his business, Moa
Milking & Pumping, right next door to the timber mill, caught fire and had to be rebuilt.
Hitchcock said if the wind on Tuesday night had changed direction, it could have sent his business up in flames again.
‘‘In 2013 I got called in the middle of the night saying the alarm was going off. So I came down and there was a small flame coming out and I thought ‘oh that’ll be fine, they’ll put that out’ but no.
‘‘The flames had blacked out the windows and the whole thing was on fire.
‘‘It took them like three or four hours to put it out after the roof had collapsed.’’
He said he had watched the fire take hold on Tuesday. It took 11 crews from across the region to bring it under control.
‘‘Within 10 minutes there were flames coming out of the roof,’’ Hitchcock said.
When his business burnt down, Hitchcock said at least they could keep trading as they work out of vans.
‘‘But these guys, they can’t work anywhere else. I feel sorry for those people.’’
Another witness was Steve Fabish, who watched Tuesday’s fire unfold from his office window at Fabish and Jackson builders which looks out right over the timber mill.
Fabish said they had seen smoke coming from the building before which usually turned out to be nothing, but not this time.
Within five minutes there was no saving it, he said.
‘‘I went down the steps and ran over the the door and went in and said ‘hey is everybody out?’ Kelvin [the managing director] came round the corner and said ‘we’ve got a big fire’ and I said ‘yes you have’."