Neighbour’s camera saved laundry business
The owner of a Washdyke laundry business which suffered extensive damage in a fire on Monday night has his neighbour to thank for alerting emergency services before the entire business went up in flames.
It’s been a challenging couple of years for Queen Bee Laundry owner Chris O’Sullivan – who had to refocus his business as the pandemic hit, then faced huge unexpected costs when Timaru’s water supply was contaminated – forcing him to truck clean water into his business.
Then late on Monday he was woken to the devastating news part of his business in Holmglen St had burnt down.
However, O’Sullivan is upbeat and said it could have been much worse, and he is thankful no-one was hurt in the blaze.
There was no-one in the building at the time, but a neighbouring business owner was made aware of the fire by an alert from his security camera system which detects motion.
‘‘The flame was caught on the motion camera, and he called straight away.
‘‘Otherwise, the whole business could’ve gone.
‘‘We’re really thankful for the fire brigade for responding so quickly,’’ O’Sullivan said.
He said he was initially pretty shocked and devastated to learn of the fire, but said thanks to his neighbour’s camera and the fire service, he had only lost one part of his business and was able to continue operating.
‘‘I’m really grateful not to lose more. We’re very lucky, feeling pretty upbeat about being back on track.’’
He said the area where his automated sheet press was located had been damaged, and a replacement machine was expected to take six to eight months to arrive from overseas.
In the meantime, he planned to manually iron sheets, but said next week he will outsource the work to another business in Christchurch.
On Wednesday, fire investigators told O’Sullivan they believed the fire had been caused by the spontaneous combustion of warm folded sheets which had been placed on shelves after coming out of the ironer.
The day before, Fire and Emergency community risk manager Craig Chambers said it was believed the fire had been caused by an electrical fault. However, further investigation identified a different cause.
In late-May, Timaru restaurant Saikou was significantly damaged after tea towels combusted, forcing a twomonth closure for repairs.
Chambers said anyone using a dryer in the home setting to dry their washing should take care.
‘‘If you’re using a dryer make sure you give the lint filter a regular clean out.’’
Chambers said it was also important to air out items after removing them from the dryer.
‘‘If you’re using a dryer make sure you give the lint filter a regular clean out.’’
Craig Chambers
Fire service community risk manager
O’Sullivan said the business was becoming ‘‘pretty resilient’’ to challenged circumstances.
Earlier this year, the laundry was put $25,000 out of pocket due to Timaru’s brown water forcing him to truck in water.
He’d also lost a lot of business during the Covid-19 pandemic as accommodation providers required his services less frequently.