TOP STORY: Alarm saves mall from inferno

By Carly Udy
An automatic alarm system, installed after a major blaze at a Tauranga shopping centre in 2002, saved it from a similar fate when fire ripped through another shop in the complex yesterday.
The fire broke out the Fresh Fish Market in Papamoa's Palm Beach Plaza, at the front of the plaza building, at 5am.
It badly damaged the area surrounding the shop's vat and caused blackened smoke damage to the rest of the shop.
The fire service was alerted to the blaze after the shop's heat detector activated.
The detector is part of the plaza's automatic fire alarm system, installed after a major fire tore through six shops in November 2002.
These shops were not covered by an automatic fire system at the time but one was installed afterwards.
Palm Beach Plaza manager Tracey Waller declined to comment this morning on yesterday's fire, saying she wouldn't do so until further information became available.
Fire safety officer Ken McKeagg said the smell of smoke prevalent in other shops indicated smoke had bypassed any fire breaks in the ceiling void.
The fire service is also investigating why smoke detectors in a shop behind the fish shop had been left covered up by workers.
"Several smoke detectors in the plaza were covered up to prevent false alarms from dust during alterations in some of the retail outlets within the complex," he said.
Mr McKeagg said that if the fire from the Fresh Fish Market had spread to Woolworths it would have been contained by the Woolworths' sprinkler system.
He said Woolworths and The Warehouse were the only shops in the plaza with sprinklers.
The fire was confined to the Fresh Fish Market but Mr McKeagg said neighbouring businesses in the plaza were left with a lingering smoky smell.
Guinness Appliances' manager Matt Wilson said there was a "toxicy" smell in the building and he had brought in a deodorising machine.
Emergency services' tape surrounded the outside of the Fresh Fish Market and smoke effected buildings yesterday, while they were aired out.
Shops included a vacant store inside the door of the Plaza, Guinness Appliances, Credit Union and NZ Post.
A security guard from Nutech Security watched over them yesterday and last night.
Mr McKeagg would not speculate on the cause of the fire but confirmed it had started at ground level, below the Fresh Fish Market's vat.
Three fire appliances from Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Papamoa attended the blaze. There was also a flurry of 111 calls from alarmed residents.
This is not the first time fire has struck the plaza.
In November 2002, fire ripped through at least half a dozen shops, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage and leaving several retailers facing a grim future.
The fire, which started at the Shane Punjab Restaurant, also ignited in the early hours of the morning.
There was no sprinkler system in that part of the building and at the time Bay of Plenty chief fire officer Ron Devlin made inquiries about the fire.
He believed it would have caused less damage had there been an automatic detection system in the peripheral shops to activate alarms earlier.
The shops had only manual detection systems.