Flash fire tears through Masterton laundry

Firefighters escaped by minutes the superheated fury of a flash fire that tore through a Masterton laundry early yesterday morning.
Wairarapa fire safety officer Henry Stechman said workers reported "seeing a glow" from the blaze at the Papawai Place premises of Wairarapa Laundry during their break at the neighbouring webstar worksite about 3am.
There were no workers onsite at the laundry at the time, Mr Stechman said, and spontaneous combustion is believed to have set towelling material smouldering hours earlier and sent superheated gas and smoke into the confines of the laundry premises.
"The super hot atmosphere within the premises blew out a window and when air rushed in there was a flash-over.
"It does appear it might have flashed over just prior to our guys getting there," he said.
"Which is lucky. There could have been some injuries if it had flashed over while our guys were in there."
Firefighters from Masterton and Carterton attended the blaze and remained at the site for at least an hour dampening hotspots and isolated flames after dousing the initial fire.
Mr Stechman said fire had "scorched, melted and damaged" equipment and goods from almost one end of the premises including walls, windows and the ceiling.
"The damage was quite significant and the flashover itself would have been quite spectacular to see but not something anybody would want to be caught in."
Wairarapa Laundry owner Darrin Pilcher said yesterday he is determined to carry on working and fulfill his commercial contracts using contingency businesses in Palmerston North and at sister company Wairarapa Drycleaners in Masterton.
He said insurance assessors visited the premises yesterday and although machinery, the building and fittings were damaged in the blaze, he is confident some of the plant is repairable despite the destruction of a significant amount of the textiles due for cleaning at the time.
Mr Pilcher said the company now services about 200 clients throughout Wairarapa including motels, conference centres and cafes and he refuses to be bowed in the wake of the blaze.
"We have a large customer base we have to service and that will be done to our same exacting standards.
"This won't stop us."