Son screams ‘mum the building’s on fire’
A fire has ripped through a prominent corner shop in Tı¯rau, affecting multiple businesses nearby.
Emergency services were battling the blaze after emergency calls mid-morning yesterday.
Flames could be seen billowing out of the former Notting Hill Interiors building on the corner of Main Rd and Rose St in photographs of the scene shared with Stuff.
A northern fire communications shift manager Carren Larking said firefighters were on the scene after receiving multiple calls from the public at 10.30am. The fire was well ablaze by the time they arrived, and a third fire alarm was immediately rung to dispatch more crew.
‘‘Eight fire crews are now on scene,’’ Larking told Stuff at noon.
‘‘It’s a multifaceted building, so several businesses have been affected by the blaze. Everyone has been evacuated and no-one is injured.’’
Waipa¯ -based The Interiors Barn owner Alex Ewen, who has a basement store below the block of shops, described a panicked scene.
‘‘I had just listened to the Government’s announcement this morning, and I was already a bit teary thinking, ‘oh my goodness life is not going to get any easier any time soon’ when I got a FaceTime call from my husband with engulfing flames behind him,’’ she said.
‘‘He’d noticed someone running around screaming trying to get the people who live above our shop out of their house, they had no idea that the place was engulfed.
‘‘He then yelled at me asking if there was anything he needed to run in and get but I said just you, don’t go back in there.’’
Ewen, whose husband was staying on site because of border restrictions, said there was no telling how much damage there was.
‘‘So far the flames haven’t engulfed through to our store but it’s obviously going to be quite badly smoke damaged,’’ she said. ‘‘We are so highly stocked at the moment with no customers and containers rolling in. We have just been hanging out for restrictions to lift, so people start coming through because it is such a thoroughfare town, we rely on that traffic to keep afloat.’’
She said her heart goes out to the people who live there and own the fish and chip shop.
‘‘They had just bought a cafe at the bottom of the hill before Covid restrictions were put in place again and now they have lost the fish and chip shop and their home. They have been hit so hard, it’s horrid.’’
Notting Hill Interiors owner Marise Vickers, who has been using the building as a storage warehouse since a truck ploughed into it in 2018, said she was in shock.
‘‘We live across the road and my son Jessie heard the alarm go off and came screaming out saying, ‘mum, the building is on fire, the whole building is on fire’,’’ she said.
‘‘It was choked to the gills as we had stock piled, tons of furniture because the supply in New Zealand is very, very difficult at the moment and she just went crazy.
‘‘It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. You go into survival mode and just think about what you need to do as you watch it burn.’’
Vickers said all staff from the shop’s new store across the road had been sent home.
‘‘That building has been a bit of a curse really. It had a little mini fire years ago which we put out with an extinguisher, then we had the truck go through and now this. It’s like are you kidding me.
‘‘My son’s theory is that number 11 and 13 Main Rd are unlucky.’’
She said the building has been completely destroyed.
‘‘The roof has caved in now, they are up there with a crane firing water down, and the awning on State Highway 1 has caved in too so it’s just the side structure still standing,’’ she said.
‘‘We have insurance, which I am a strong believer in. I just hope the fish and chip shop is okay.’’