Fire destroys historic Northland marae

A small Northland community is in mourning after a fire destroyed their historic marae.

Fire Safety investigators are yet to establish the cause of the fire which destroyed Okorihi Marae within minutes of the alarm being raised at 12.05pm yesterday.

The fire came within days of a Fire Service warning about marae fire safety, issued after a marae burned down in Rotorua.

Firefighters desperately tried to put out the Northland blaze, but could not stop it gutting the marae's buildings, parts of which were more than 100 years old and were under Historic Places Trust protection orders.

The marae's buildings did not have sprinklers.

Kaumatua and kuia from the marae, about 5km west of Kaikohe, were shocked and upset as they watched firefighters desperately trying to dowse the fire, which also destroyed most of the hapu's taonga (treasures).

The marae is home to the Ngatiueoneone hapu.

Hapu member, Colin Rameka, said the hapu would try and rebuild the marae as soon as possible.

"Because this hapu really depends on this marae."

Fellow hapu member, Puke Nikora, said losing the marae brought back the memories of all the hapu's ancestors who had passed on their taonga for the hapu to look after.

He asked for the community to rally round to help rebuilding efforts.

Kaikohe Fire Station officer Wiremu Matene said the old part of the building was well ablaze by the time firefighters arrived at the marae.

Firefighters' efforts were hampered by the lack of available water and a relay system had to be set up to bring water from nearby tanks to help fight the flames.

"When you run out of water it's hard, but that's one of the problems with fighting fires in rural areas," Mr Matene said.

Kaikohe deputy chief fire officer Loren Thomas said a lack of firefighters in Kaikohe hampered efforts to save the marae.

"We had to step back for a while as there were a couple of LPG bottles (that set alight) so we had to wait for them to burn out,"

Fire Service national Maori adviser Piki Thomas said the fire served as a sad reminder for all marae to manage fire risk,

He said the Fire Service recommended all marae install smoke alarms and sprinklers as well as have an evacuation plan.

"It's one thing to insure the building but you don't get the photos, the carvings, the blood, sweat and tears and the emotions that went into the building," he said.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE (WHANGAREI)