A Ferocious fire has ripped through one of the Bay's largest commercial and residential demolition companies - destroying four years of hard work for owners Andre Pratt and John Campbell.
This year was meant to be a year of improvements and expansion for Oropi's AJ Demolition. Instead, Messrs Pratt and Campbell
stood by helplessly as it all went up in smoke.
"A few days on and this still hasn't sunk in," Mr Pratt said, pointing at the steaming piles of ashes. "I can't believe we've lost everything. Everything we've been working towards for the past four years has gone."
Mr Pratt said the shed was about half-full with demolition materials, which included native timbers, bricks and even refrigeration appliances. The remaining building space was occupied with hay bales belonging to Stewart Contractors.
He estimated the contents of the building - which measured 85m by 12m and was five metres high - to be worth well over $250,000.
"Once the flames caught onto that stuff, there would've been no stopping it," he said. "You never think something like this is going to happen to you."
To make matters worse, Mr Pratt said he and Mr Campbell had been looking at the possibility of relocating their company from Oropi to the city.
"All the timber and materials we were going to use to do that were in there," he said. "We had big dreams, we wanted to expand and go places. Now we have to start over."
As if losing everything they had worked for was not enough, Mr Campbell said he also had a huge amount of personal property stored in the shed.
Tauranga Senior Station Fire Officer Mark Keller said the fire, reported at 2.15pm on Thursday, was well alight when fire crews arrived.
Because of the large quantities of hay and timber stacked in the buildings and because there was little water supply in the area, fire officers decided to let the fire burn itself out.
Stewart Contractors were also devastated by the blaze which tore through their Oropi land.
Helen Stewart, co-owner of the agricultural contracting business, estimated that in both hay sheds, they had at least 4000 bales stored.
