Vat f ire at Burger King prompts evacuation
A fire in a central Wellington Burger King restaurant prompted the evacuation of a residential building at the weekend.
An alarm in the apartments above the Manners St restaurant sounded for several minutes just after midnight yesterday.
Greer Mahoney was staying in an Airbnb apartment on the fourth floor when a fire broke out in fry vats on the ground floor.
The 23-year-old Christchurch woman and her friends had just returned from the Eminem concert minutes before the alarm started but it wasn’t until they started to smell smoke that they thought it would be a good time to leave.
‘‘It was just one of those unfortunate events. At first, we thought it might have been someone who had burnt the toast but we thought we better get out just in case.’’
She said fire engines arrived soon after they made it out.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager David Meikle said firefighters were able to put out the vat fire using dry powder extinguishers.
‘‘The fire was extinguished quickly. The residents were evacuated and smoke cleared.’’
Because of the building’s location, the incident went to second alarm and six fire engines attended as well as a command unit, Meikle said.
No-one required medical treatment as a result of the fire.
Mahoney said the incident didn’t faze her and her friends too much because they were still on a high from the concert. ‘‘I might have been scared if I hadn’t just seen an amazing show.’’
As they were not allowed back in the building, they went out to enjoy the Wellington nightlife and returned at 4am to find the building was habitable again.
Burger King was closed yesterday while the damage was being assessed. It is not known when the restaurant will reopen.