Fire destroys father’s last project

John Bowmar lost more than a building in a fire that destroyed his factory in Upper Hutt – he’s lost a vital link to his dead father.

The Acma Industries building in Montgomery Cres was Alan Bowmar’s last project before he died on New Year’s Day. The factory, which produced carpet underlay, was razed on Friday night.

John Bowmar arrived at the site about 20 minutes after the fire engines did, and said it was ‘‘fairly traumatic’’ watching the factory burn down.

‘‘I worked with my dad, we were partners in the business. That was his last project, setting up that underlay factory.’’

Bowman said the factory, which he did not own, would probably have to be rebuilt completely.

Alan Bowmar was described after his death as one of Upper Hutt’s most loyal, successful, and respected businessmen. He started the business with partners George Peters and Eric Evans in 1978, and John joined the business in 1995.

Acma had three adjacent factories to the one destroyed, and the main moulding factory, which employed three people, was unscathed, John Bowmar said.

It was not clear what had caused the fire, but the fire service was investigating.

Bowmar was still calculating how much it would cost to recover from the fire. It was fully insured, and he was working through the insurance process.

‘‘We have a certain amount of work equipment that comes from Taiwan. It’s made to order so there’s quite a bit of work to do to sort all that out.’’

The community had rallied around since the fire to offer support. Bowmar thanked those people, as well as the fire brigade, who he said did an excellent job of containing the fire to one building.