Community loses buildings and job hopes in blaze

A devastating blaze has torn the heart out of a tiny Far North community.

The fire, in the early hours of Monday morning, razed a community centre, waka ama clubrooms and a furniture workshop in Pawarenga, on the Whangape Harbour, north of Hokianga.

The workshop was one of only a handful of businesses in the isolated township. Community Trust chairman Kit Warr had spent 25 years building up the business, hoping to provide much-needed employment.

It was "just about to take off" with wide interest for Mr Warr's Pacific-style furniture and waka ama paddles. But just after 2am on Monday his workshop, attached to the Pawarenga Community Trust complex, burned to the ground.

The complex was the centre for a wide range of services and activities for the small community. It provided information technology services; printing; a venue for meetings, workshops and training; an industrial washing machine and a minivan for transport.

It was also the home of the Nga Hoe Horo waka ama club, which is known internationally and is regarded as an inspiration to young people of the area.

The loss of the buildings has devastated the people of Pawarenga, but they are taking some solace from the fact that the medical centre - just metres from the complex - was spared.

Mr Warr said the community would rebuild the trust's offices and other buildings. However, he was not sure if the workshop would be resurrected.

"It's been here for 25 years, basically since we started the trust. We are insured, and the trust offices will return, but I don't know if the workshop can be brought back."

He lost designs, tools, machinery and native timbers in the fire, which is believed to have started in the workshop before jumping a one-metre gap to the office and staffroom area.

"We started this up with the aim of one day providing employment for people," Mr Warr said.

Like many small communities, Pawarenga was torn apart by the closure of its services in the 1980s. In the space of a few years it lost its Post Office, bank, store and petrol pumps.

Mr Warr said the community would not let this latest setback beat them.

"We'll clean up this mess, then we'll get on with rebuilding," he said. "This is an important complex to the whole community. Just about everything that happens in the community happens here, and it's hard to come to grips with this.

"There's always the possibility of these sort of things happening, but you don't think it's going to happen to you.

The trust planted a stand of hardwood trees directly behind the complex 25 years ago to use in the furniture venture. The trees were close to harvest and the business set to take off. The van that the waka ama club used was inside the building when it went up and is now a burnt-out shell.

Kohukohu fire chief Bill Thomson said a domestic sprinkler system might have saved the building.

"We need to focus on promoting fire safety in rural areas. It saves lives. The tyranny of distance means putting people in fire trucks doesn't do it," Mr Thomson said.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE