By BRIDGET CARTER
A fire at Auckland's historic Hotel De Brett not only cut off beer supplies but ruined the entire stock of a new men's fashion boutique.
De Brett, in the central city, and a cluster of shops in the same building have closed indefinitely after the blaze a week
ago that began in the basement.
Murray Crane was devastated when he arrived at his store, Crane Brothers, to find $250,000 of designer clothing with labels such as Karen Walker and Marilyn Sainty damaged by smoke.
He rushed to the High St store when an assistant told him by telephone that smoke was spilling into his shop "fairly rapidly".
Firefighters said that if they had arrived 10 minutes later, the whole building would have gone up in flames.
Mr Crane said he and his brother Mark opened their trendy boutique in February.
"All our stock has been destroyed," he said.
"You can get emotional about it. I did on the way down, but when I arrived I was pretty calm."
The brothers had used old and new fittings to make the interior of their shop look as though it had been there for years.
Furniture included an old display case from the Christchurch department store Ballantynes - scene of New Zealand's worst fire tragedy, in November 1947, in which 41 people perished - and the lights were salvaged from a factory.
"A lot of what we were doing was in keeping with the building," Mr Crane said.
He had been in the fashion industry for 15 years, but this was the first business he had set up with his brother.
No other investors were involved in the business.
"We have so many things we were working on," said Mr Crane. "We were working on a whole range of ties from a Parisian company."
Other premises that shut after the fire included Fabric, next door to Crane Brothers, and The Corner Bar. All the businesses in the building were relatively new.
The Crane brothers are now focusing on remaining positive.
They are looking at getting new stock made, and clothes that were about to be delivered to the High St store will be sold in their other shop in Ponsonby.
"We are trying to make the best of a bad situation," said Mr Crane.
"We are adamant about showing our customers we are moving forward and are not prepared to take it lying down."
By BRIDGET CARTER
A fire at Auckland's historic Hotel De Brett not only cut off beer supplies but ruined the entire stock of a new men's fashion boutique.
De Brett, in the central city, and a cluster of shops in the same building have closed indefinitely after the blaze a week
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