Fire alarm ‘prank’ not funny for city night spot and hotel

Patrons were evacuated from a popular New Plymouth night spot after a prankster set off a fire alarm in the toilets.

The fire brigade was called to the Snug Lounge, which opened in 2011 as part of the multimilliondollar redevelopment of the White Hart Hotel, at 11.48pm on Friday.

Patrons from the bar, which is connected to pizza and craft beer restaurant Ms White’s and King and Queen Hotel Suits, had to leave while firefighters, who were on site for 10 minutes, investigated.

After the commotion the bar’s owners took to Facebook in an attempt to identify the culprits.

‘‘This ignorance has cost us significantly with call out fees for the Fire Brigade ($1000), security callouts across neighbouring properties, unpaid tabs and the cost of repairs to the broken alarm.’’

However co-owner Gina Bryant said most people had returned to settle their bills and explained the establishment usually took credit card details before opening tabs for large groups anyway.

Pat Fitzell, Fire and Emergency New Zealand Taranaki area manager, said while the organisation did have the authority to bill companies who had ongoing problems with malfunctioning alarms, they wouldn’t be in this case.

‘‘You can’t blame the property owners for something that’s out of their control.’’ He said if the culprit was caught they could be charged for the callout.

Bryant was relieved to hear the fire brigade wouldn’t be charging for the callout.

King and Queen Hotel Suits general manager Daniel Fleming said: ‘‘Only one of our blocks is actually connected to that [area] so it wasn’t the main part of our hotel, it was only the left wing.’’

The alarm had only forced the evacuation of four or five guests, he said. ‘‘Quite a few of them found it a bit exciting.’’