Aaron Donker had hoped to grab a steak and cheese pie, but instead watched the shop's kitchen go up in flames early on Saturday. Video / Aaron Donker
A Whangārei farmer’s hope of grabbing an after-fishing pie were dashed early on Saturday when he watched a Gull station kitchen go up in flames.
Aaron Donker had been fishing at Ocean Beach and stopped at Night ‘n Day in Raumanga for a bite to eat just before 2am.
But that quickly turned on its head when he stood at the counter ready to pay for his steak and cheese pie and noticed flames flickering in the reflection of the glass cabinet.
They were coming from the kitchen behind the counter, and a staff member yelled out “Fire, fire!”
“I didn’t think too much of it because it only looked like a small fire. I thought ‘Oh yeah, he’ll be able to put it out’,” Donker said.
“I’m just waiting there, opened up my wallet, pulled out my card waiting to pay for my pie.”
But soon the flames had grown, and smoke was “pouring” from the kitchen, he said.
“[A staff member] told me, ”Quick, get out, get out!” So I ran out and stood at the door. Then I realised, ‘Oh jeez, I’ve left my wallet on the counter’, so I quickly ran back in and grabbed that.”
That’s when a staff member grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed the fire, though Donker said it didn’t appear to make any difference.
“Within a minute or so, that whole shop was filled up with smoke,” he said.
“It happened very, very fast.”
Along with the smoke and smoke alarms beeping, there was a “real disgusting toxic smell”, he said.
Donker pulled his truck well out of the way.
“It just got worse and worse. It flared up a little bit and then died down. And then just before the fire engines turned up, it started to really flare up again.”
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said crews were alerted to the blaze at 1.50am on Saturday.
Trucks from Whangārei, Portland, Onerahi and Te Kamo arrived to find the building “well ablaze”.
Donker said by the time Fire and Emergency arrived, about seven minutes after the blaze started, flames had started to emerge through the roof.
Flames grew from inside the kitchen to through the roof at Gull Whangārei early on Saturday morning. Photo / Aaron Donker
“If they’d been another couple of minutes, it would’ve been probably quite a different story, I think. The building would’ve been really alight then.”
He said it was “pretty cool” to watch the crews in action.
“There was no panicking ... they all had their jobs, and they knew ... what they had to do.”
Within 40 minutes, the fire was extinguished.
A fire investigator found the cause of the fire was accidental and was believed to have started in the shop’s kitchen.
As of 11.40am on Monday, the Gull station and Night ‘n Day were taped off and closed.
Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.
