Bar’s washing bursts into flames
Firefighters arrived in the nick of time to save a popular Taranaki bar from serious damage when a basket of towels burst into flames yesterday.
The New Plymouth brigade was alerted to the fire at The Hour Glass in Liardet St, less than 100m from the station, by the business’s alarm system just after 5am.
Two engines responded to the callout and firefighters had to break into the smokelogged building after arriving to see the basket erupt into flames.
Co-owner Mark Louis said it was a great save.
‘‘They looked through the back door and saw smoke in the top half of the building from the ceiling down,’’ Louis said. ‘‘Then they could see the washing basket by the end of the bar and it ignited while they were standing there. It was kind of perfect timing.’’ New Plymouth senior station officer Nick Burke said firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, which were contained to the basket. While the business was saved from significant damage the building was seriously smoke damaged and staff were hard at work yesterday cleaning up hoping to re-open tomorrow.
‘‘It’s just cleaning because if you don’t clean it off it just stinks,’’ Louis said. ‘‘If there was no smoke damage we would have been open tonight.’’
He said firefighters told him if towels or clothing that had been soaked in chemicals or oil, kitchen, motor or even massage oils, and put through a tumble dryer, it could ignite fires.
It’s not the first time a Taranaki hospitality business had been caught out by the phenomenon. In January 2019 Lepperton’s Tawa Glen Cafe closed its doors after it was the victim of a fire, which started in a basket of clean, dry washing and there had been other cases reported around the country.
Louis said it was going to be a big weekend and he was pleased the bar would be open.