‘It’s devastating’
- local firm’s reaction to fire
ANorthland engineering giant that constructed and installed steel framings used in Auckland’s burning New Zealand International Convention Centre may be called to help once the fire is put out.
CH Steel, a joint venture between Whanga¯ rei’s Culham Engineering and US company Herrick, was awarded the contract in 2015 for the 8500 tonnes of steel framing and fitting needed for the massive complex.
The firm had hired five new apprentices, five staff in preparation for the contract and at least 50 New Zealand-based staff to get the job done— many of these based in Whanga¯rei.
A massive blaze in the centre, build at a cost of more than $400m, in downtown Auckland started on Tuesday afternoon and continued to burn until yesterday afternoon, despite firefighters using 12 million litres of water fighting the fire.
Massive flames and black smoke continue to pour from the site with more than 80 ground-based firefighters using highpowered hoses to try to quell flames.
Many central city roads were closed, bus services disrupted, and some businesses urged workers to stay away.
Culham general manager and director
Rob Kirwan said his company did all the structure steel and fab- rication and still had more to do.
“It’s devastating. The fire’s pretty ferocious and I’ve spoken to a few senior people running the show and they said the damage was down to the sixth level. Not just the fire but water damage as well,” Kirwan said. “The majority of our work was done. We didn’t have anybody on site when the fire started but we still have our gear and a lot of our equipment on site, plus offices that we set up.” Kirwan said putting the steel framings was a challenge but disassembling them if needed to would be even harder.
We didn’t have anybody on site when the fire started but we still have our gear and a lot of our equipment on site, plus offices that we set up. Culham Engineering director Rob Kirwan
“But we’re available to help, we’ve got intimate knowledge of the building. We put in every nut and bolt and put the structure in place.”
He said the biggest conundrum was the extent of damage inside the building which was still out of bounds as firefighters were working round the clock to bring the fire under control.
Culham Engineering has a 61-year history of steel fabrication in Northland and had trained more than 700 apprentices in that time.
The company invested substantially in new equipment to undertake the convention centre at SkyCity contract and has one of the most technologically-advanced fabrication plants in the country.
“The reality of this project, now that we have pretty much finished, is it has allowed us to employ yearon-year at least 10 apprentices, employ easily 75 more resources, as well as at one time or another have every Whanga¯rei-based fabricator fabricating work for us,” Kirwan said.