`Biggest fire of year' guts family business

An explosive fire hot enough to melt steel girders has ripped through a family-run furniture restoration business in Tauranga _ leaving its owners and their customers shattered.
Nine fire trucks and about 40 firefighters _ some from as far away as Te Puke and Omokoroa _ were called to the Cartmill and Parish furniture restoration company on Courtney Rd in Gate Pa just after 11pm on Saturday.
No one was hurt and while investigators are not sure what started the blaze, they have not ruled out arson.
Senior Station Officer Jeff Maunder, of Tauranga Fire Service, said the factory was filled with wood and flammable chemicals. He said when firefighters arrived at the scene the building was completely engulfed.
"You could see it as we came down the street _ there were a lot of flames," he said.
Temperatures of up to 800C inside the factory melted steel girders holding up the roof, causing it to collapse. Mr Maunder said the heat caused gas cylinders inside to explode.
"It was probably our biggest fire of the year. It was going from end to end. The roof collapsed and there were lots of cylinders going bang."
Mr Maunder said it was fortunate the fire wasn't allowed to spread to other buildings in the complex or to two storage lockers containing more chemicals at the back of the factory.
"It didn't go through the fire wall and that was our main goal," he said.
Firefighters took about an hour to extinguish the flames but spent a further four hours dampening down hotspots and ensuring the site was safe.
The owners of the business, Claire and Mike Ryan, first learned of the fire after receiving a phone call from Mr Ryan's father on Sunday morning. They immediately rushed to the scene and were horrified by what they saw.
"Absolute devastation. I would have preferred my own house to burn down than this," Mrs Ryan told the Bay of Plenty Times.
The couple were so taken aback by the severity of the damage they decided to leave their three daughters with neighbours while they visited the scene yesterday afternoon. Mrs Ryan said the girls had often used the upstairs section of the building as play area.
"I don't want them to see it _ how can they see this? One of my daughter's desks was out the back. I'd almost finished it," she said.
Mrs Ryan said the couple had been running the business for only a year, restoring all kinds of furniture for a number of clients. Mrs Ryan said all the furniture destroyed by the fire was insured.
This seemed of little comfort to her as she yesterday picked through the charred remains of what was left behind by the fire.
"We worked around the clock on this business. It's our livelihood. Everything we own is in it and now it's gone," she said.
They do not own the building.
The couple had no idea how the fire had started. They had been in contact with the fire service but she said it also did not yet know what had caused the blaze.
"They don't know and probably never will know," she said.
Mrs Ryan was concerned about the consequences the fire would have, not only for her family, but for employees of the business.
"There are three people who will lose their jobs because of this _ they are affected too," she said.
"I guess we have to look for a new premises and try to start all over again."