The upper floor of Loafers Lodge hostel was gutted during the fatal fire in the early hours of May 16. Photo / Georgina Campbell
The upper floor of Loafers Lodge hostel was gutted during the fatal fire in the early hours of May 16. Photo / Georgina Campbell
Opinion
EDITORIAL
With police moving swiftly to arrest a person in relation to the fire that killed at least six at the Loafers Lodge, one big question was answered but many more remain.
The question of how the fire started is yet to be determined by fire investigators, who will presenttheir findings to the court and to the Coroner. But two counts of arson point to how police believe the hostel came to be on fire in the early hours of Tuesday, May 16.
This should temper some of the harsh criticism of the building and its owners that rose up in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
Leading the pack was a “very, very angry” Greens co-leader James Shaw, who stood up in Parliament and blasted the state of the country’s housing and building code, asking how it could allow the most vulnerable residents to “live in substandard accommodation with a reasonable chance of lethality”.
While understandable in the highly emotional hours after the Newtown blaze was doused, it is yet to be proven that this event was the result of “substandard” housing. Few buildings are constructed and fitted out to withstand an act of arson.
Loafers Lodge director Greg Mein stood in front of the media and, ergo, the public to explain what he understood to be the state of the building prior to the fire.
The building, he said, had a monthly inspection “where they go through and check ... make sure that all the services are up to standard and we had an invasive building warrant of fitness done, which is done yearly, and that was completed in March and everything was A-okay”.
He acknowledged there was speculation and he was supporting management to assist police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) with their investigations. “Myself, the management, the family, etc, of the owner, everyone is just gutted by this, it’s just done us in completely.” This doesn’t sound like someone with anything to hide or be ashamed of.
Mein also pointed out the tenants “all have varying needs and we do the best we can”.
Two questions, in particular, have arisen: whether all multi-storey residential buildings should be required to have sprinklers installed; and whether New Zealand’s firefighters are equipped to fight these kinds of blazes.
New Zealand’s building code does not mandate sprinklers in multi-storey residential buildings such as Loafers Lodge. For some particularly large buildings, like those over 10 storeys, sprinklers are usually required. Would sprinklers have saved lives? Probably, but remember how police believe this fire was started.
Then there’s the Professional Firefighters’ Union claims that Wellington’s “busiest fire truck” was offline for 58 consecutive hours earlier last week and offline between May 12 and 14 because it did not have enough firefighters to crew it. Two trucks from fire stations close to Loafers Lodge also faced crewing problems, including one truck with a ladder, the kind needed to attend fires in a multi-storey building.
On the day of the fire, Kilbirnie’s fire truck was not fully crewed until the night shift and Newtown’s 17-metre ladder truck was offline during its day shift, again because of a lack of staff. Porirua and Karori trucks were also offline during this period.
This is a troubling scenario but needs the context of the currently fractious pay negotiations between Fenz and the Professional Firefighters’ Union. Claims and counterclaims often have elements of truth if not providing the full picture.
We do know the response by emergency services was heroic and fast. Survivors spoke of firefighters going into the building even as tenants were still filing out.
