The fallout continues from the tragic Loafers Lodge fire in Wellington, local government expert says sack all Gore councillors after Mayor survives and police surround house in Rānui as person barricades themselves inside in the latest New Zealand Herald headlines. Video / NZ Herald
The 92-room, short-term accommodation block had fire alarms, a smoke extraction system and two exit stairwells, but did not have sprinklers.
“There’s not a requirement for sprinklers but it would havebeen a good idea,” said Charlie Loughnan, a Christchurch fire protection specialist of 25 years and ex-firefighter.
“But sprinklers are expensive so people don’t tend to put them in unless they have to.”
A 13-part, four-page compliance schedule for a Building Warrant of Fitness (BWOF) at Loafers Lodge shows it had a type three fire alarm, which is triggered by heat, typically at 57C, Loughnan said.
“That means if you stuff a waste paper basket full of newspaper and set it alight in the corner of the room it would be going really well by the time the system activates.
No concerns were raised when the building was checked by an independent expert just two months ago, she said.
A Pentecostal church used to be run out of the Loafers building, which was called the Lifepoint Building in the 1990s. It also housed Westpac bank’s Newtown branch.
Its first building warrant of fitness as Loafers Lodge was issued in February 2010, and most recently renewed on March 2 this year - by which stage it had been expired for a week - according to Wellington City Council records.
The change of use around this time - apparently from a church to a lodge, though that has so far not been confirmed by council records - was required to be notified to the Wellington City Council.
Loughnan said the capital was unusual in the number of old buildings turned into accommodation.
Sometimes when a change of use was sought, checks were run by Fire and Emergency (Fenz).
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said she was not aware Fenz had ever inspected the building in Adelaide Rd.
“Safe paths” include stairwells, which the rules say should be painted with non-combustible paint.
The BWOF attests to annual checks undertaken by an IQP, or Independent Qualified Person, of the 13 safety systems - out of a possible 16 - which the 1970s, five-to-six-level Loafers block had.
Firefighters on the scene at the Loafers Lodge fire. Photo / Nick James
The checks on its alarm system and smoke doors, were by Aquaheat, which signed systems off as “fully complied”. Another firm, Argest, signed off on fire separations.
Buildings under 25m with two stairwells, even residential ones, do not require sprinkler systems. The height limit is 10m for buildings with one stairwell.
Councils vet the IQPs, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment audits the council’s warrants systems.
In 2018 the ministry said it would be reducing the audits, even though it was aware of gaps in the system.
The system also relies on building managers doing monthly checks on the fire doors and stairwells.
Loughnan noted short-term accommodation typically lacked storage, so people sometimes put bicycles or other gear in stairwells and corridors, a no-no for speedy evacuation.
Asbestos
Loafers Lodge had roofing with asbestos in it, and small pieces of it had been scattered about, the council said.
“Asbestos fibres are not considered a health risk unless they are in the air,” the council said.
The firefighters’ union has previously challenged the adequacy of Fenz’s handling of asbestos at emergencies, but Fenz has defended it.
In a series of RNZ Official Information Act responses and statements last year, Fenz said fire crews were sometimes advised if a site had asbestos when they were on their way to a fire.
An OIA showed that Fenz had a total of 8940 such site reports on buildings across the country, and 521 of these mentioned asbestos.
A fire engineer who has studied boarding house risks, Dr Geoff Thomas, said the safety rules for multi-unit blocks needed better enforcement.
His research a few years ago found such buildings, if they did not have sprinklers, had the highest fire casualty rates.
“The rate of fire fatalities was about twice that for residential houses, but if it was unsprinklered it was four times that.”
Thomas noted that whereas crowded or high-risk buildings like shopping malls, office blocks and hospitals had high hazards, they also had lots of protections, like mandatory sprinklers.
By contrast, transient accommodation was a weak spot, he said.
This was made worse by the fact that people were most commonly alerted to fire by the smell if alarms did not sound, and when people were asleep they had no sense of smell, Thomas said.
‘All that human tragedy wouldn’t be here’
Fenz deputy national commander Brendon Nally said if the building had fully working sprinklers “then the result would be way less than what we’re dealing with now”.
“My firefighters, the great comms team operators, wouldn’t have had to go through the tragedy, We wouldn’t have had people that are deceased, we wouldn’t have families that are missing loved ones, we wouldn’t have people worried that they can’t find people.
