Huge explosion rattles historical hotel

By Evan Harding and Rochelle
A champion Northland boxer and his wife dodged a fiery death by two minutes after awaking in a burning hotel.
The historical Ohaeawai Hotel caught fire about 3am yesterday while boxer Mohamed Azzaoui, the 2004 Pan Asian Boxing Association cruiserweight champion, and his wife Mihi were asleep in bed.
The couple got out of the hotel just in time - two more minutes and they would have been killed by poisonous gases, a fire service spokesman said.
However, Mohamed cheated death a second time when he went back into the burning hotel to grab family items, minutes before a huge explosion.
The Azzaouis run the pub and had been asleep when the fire started.
Mrs Azzaoui had awoken to the strong smell of smoke in their upstairs bedroom.
She and her husband had rushed downstairs as the smoke alarms sounded.
Mrs Azzaoui then ran across the road in her pyjamas and made a 111 call to emergency services in a public telephone box. But her husband went back into the burning building to collect jewellery and other valuables before emerging outside intact.
When the fire service arrived minutes later, a massive explosion rocked the building, collapsing the ceiling in the private bar downstairs and breaking wooden framing like twigs. The explosion, caused by a build-up of gas, shattered a window pane and partially collapsed the ceilings of two other downstairs rooms and shifted an outside wall.
Neighbour Hare Haenga said he had woken shortly before the explosion to the sound of the hotel's fire alarm and his pig dogs "nutting off".
"I looked out my window and saw some smoke coming out of the hotel and within a few minutes it was pouring out," he said.
He then saw Azzaoui run back into the burning hotel while Mrs Azzaoui was on the phone.
"He came out with a suitcase."
The explosion happened as the first fire appliance arrived at the scene.
"Just as they were booting the front door down their was a loud boom. A window blew out and glass went flying across the road, just like the movies," he said.
Northland fire region fire safety officer Willie More said that, if Mr and Mrs Azzaoui had woken two minutes later, they would have died.
"If she hadn't woken at that time I can say 100 percent we would have two fatalities. The gas would have got them."
And if the fire service had arrived two minutes later, the historical hotel would now be be ashes, he said.
"The building was on the verge of being totally involved when the firemen arrived. Two minutes later and it would have been racing away and that would have been a shame because she is an icon in this area. This place has got a lot of history."
Three fire appliances from Kaikohe and one from Okaihau fought the blaze which started on an outside wall of the building. From the outside, a charred section of wall about 3m by 1m was all that hinted at the damage inside.
Kaikohe police are investigating the blaze.
Detective Sergeant Mike Foster said it appeared the fire was not the work of an arsonist, but he declined to discuss the likely cause of it.
It is the second fire at the hotel within the last 18 months. On November 20, 2003, firefighters were called to a suspicious fire at the building about 6.30am.