Waipukurau business owner praises firefighters

Bill Donnithorne, general manager of Waipukurau farm equipment business Stevenson and Taylor, shows the damage to the repairs workshop caused by the large fire on February 16.

Stevenson and Taylor general manager Bill Donnithorne has nothing but praise for local fire crews after their rapid response possibly saved the business from going up in flames.

More than 30 firefighters were called to the 67-year-old Waipukurau farming equipment business on Takapau Rd around 10am on February 16, after a fire engulfed the small motors repairs workshop.

"They were really professional. If they hadn't been so on to it, it could have been a lot worse. We really want to thank them," Donnithorne said.

With flames and columns of black smoke rising from the building, fire crews from Waipukurau, Waipawa, Otane and Hastings successfully battled to bring the blaze under control within an hour, but staff were not allowed back into the building until 2pm.

After a clean-up that afternoon and on Saturday morning, the business was open that day.

But the quick return to work was only possible due to the prompt response of firefighters, said Mr Donnithorne, who did not want to think what would have happened if they had arrived even a few minutes later.

"The engineering workshop would have gone up next, and then it would have spread to the store out front ... Can you imagine this place with all the gas bottles and stuff? The whole place would have gone up."

Mr Donnithorne also praised the actions of his staff, who were sitting down to smoko at the time of the fire. He said about eight of them used handheld extinguishers to try and stop the flames from spreading.

But that became an impossible task when a hose attached to an air tank mounted on a wall, in turn attached to a large air compressor, melted, he said.

"The air was swooshing the flames around — it was like a big fireball. It pushed the flames up to the ceiling and then through the big metal louvres at the front."

He also thanked local tradespeople, including electricians and plumbers, for working to restore power and water to the business by Friday night.

"The community rallied around us. They really did."

The fire gutted the workshop, destroying a 7-month-old $70,000 plasma cutter, as well as clients' lawn mower engines and chainsaws.

Mr Donnithorne did not want to speculate about what caused the fire or the cost of the damage, as the business was still waiting for a report from insurance company assessors.

In the meantime, a storage shed out back had been transformed into a temporary workshop and it was "back to business as usual," Mr Donnithorne said.