A fire in Mount Maunganui this morning gutted a radiator shop and narrowly avoided reducing two more businesses to ashes.
The fire was believed to have started some time before 3.50am in Advantage Radiators before it burned its way through a wall to the adjoining laundry service. Hull Road Lunch Bar was the only shop in the block of three that escaped harm after its smoke detector alerted a security company.
It took firefighters several minutes to get access through the roller doors and a further 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze.
Advantage Radiators owner Mike Poulter arrived at 4.15 this morning to find his three-year-old business up in flames.
The Auckland Blues supporter said the worst thing was he had now lost his eight-year collection of posters.
"We were lucky because we were going to fix up a boat [for a friend] last night. We were going to bring it in to the garage."
Even so, he had been working on his daughter's two cars in the garage. Both were extensively damaged.
The fire burnt through a wall into J2FC Ltd, a laundry service, and caused extensive smoke damage.
Firefighters arrived at the Hull Rd site at 3.50am and found the radiator shop well ablaze.
Station Officer at Mount Maunganui Fire Brigade Peter Clark said the fire appeared to have been burning for some time before anyone was alerted.
