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Tala Sili knew he had to jump from the window of his top-floor lodge bedroom or burn inside.
“I was on the top floor and I couldn’t go through the hallway because there was just too much smoke so I jumped out the window,” he told RNZ.
Rescued from the roof of Wellington’s Loafers Lodge by paramedics after spraining an ankle, he said it had been a scary night.
“It was just scary, it was really scary, but I knew I had to jump out the window or just burn inside the building.”
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Several people were killed in the blaze which ripped through the Newtown hostel overnight on Tuesday. At least six people are confirmed dead.
It was being treated as suspicious, and while there were fire alarms – there had been no sprinklers in the building.
The fire was described as a “once in a decade fire for Wellington” and “a worst nightmare” by Fire and Emergency district commander Nick Pyatt.
Sili said he’d been surrounded by heavy smoke, and while couldn’t see the fire, he felt the heat.
“It smelt like poison,” he said.
He’d lived in the lodge for a year, and lost everything.
Tamrat Isse Adan also managed to escape – but with just his jacket and phone.
He was going to the toilet when he realised there was a fire.
“There was smoke and the alarm was going from upstairs,” he said.
“When I come from the toilet there was smelling everywhere, smoke … people running everywhere. I just jumped to my room, and I take my jacket and my mobile, that’s it.”
He escaped down the stairs and out the door. He could see nothing in the dark.
The smoke alarm did go off, but it often went off and people didn’t realise at first it meant there was a fire.
“The alarm they keep going every week, two times, three times, there’s no good management there.
He had lived in a room by himself on the second floor since last year.
“I’m very sad, very sad. My neighbour, he’s missing, maybe he’s dead, police say there’s a lot of people missing. Very sad.”
He’s talked to his children in Australia, but didn’t know where he was going to go tonight.
After months of false alarms, Loafers Lodge resident Paul Jury said he nearly didn’t react when fire hit the hostel.
He’d been living at the lodge for 18 months and had frequent false alarms go off – he initially thought the sensors were too sensitive.
But very soon it became clear this alarm was real. He made his way out through a stairwell – with just the clothes on his back.
He was one of about 50 other residents are being cared for at Newtown Park while they sort out where to go next.
Wearing only their pyjamas, residents have been given food, towels and toiletries while they wait for their next steps.
Families have started arriving to look for their loved ones.
Jury said everyone inside was shocked but people were trying to remain upbeat.
“People are trying to make the best of the situation.”
Gianina Schwanecke / STUFF
Paul Jury had been living in Wellington’s Loafers Lodge for about 18 months. He shares experience of escaping Tuesday’s fire.
Speaking outside the building, the hostel’s manager Marie Murphy said a whole range of people lived at Loafer’s Lodge.
“We’ve got everyone living there. We have nurses. We’ve had doctors, nurses, unemployed people, meat workers, hospital staff. All sorts of people. A real variety of people,” she said.
“This is very sad for a lot of people. Not only the ones who’ve lost their lives, but those who’ve lost their homes.
“There’s a lot of full time people. A lot have been there longer than I‘ve been there,” Murphy said.
“It just feels surreal. It doesn’t feel real. It’s very hard. It was a pretty bad fire. I’m feeling very sad at the moment.”
DAVID UNWIN/ STUFF
An overnight fire at Loafer Lodge, in Newtown, has killed an unknown number of people. Wellington City mayor Tory Whanau gives an update.
Wellington City Missioniser said many of the people in their care had Loafers Lodge as their registered address.
“This is an absolute disaster,” he said.
“These are people who are inherently vulnerable anyway. It’s a tragedy for our community.”
He couldn’t say whether those people were amongst the dead or injured.
“Our plan is to try to contact people to establish if they are alright and if so what they need.“
“We have offered social work to support people who are displaced, whether they are our clientele or not.”
But with their own beds full there is no room to offer temporary accomodation.
Many of the residents were also deportees from Australia, known as 501s for the name of the legislation they were deported under, Deportee advocate Filipa Payne, from the lobby Route 501, said.
She said the hostel was used by Prison Aid and Rehabilitation and the Government to house returned deportees, who she called “vulnerable and disconnected”.
“There was quite a family unit. This is a horrible tragedy that will affect people that have been placed there through a traumatic and barbaric system,” she said.
Through tears, Payne said many of the people under the deportation scheme don’t get a choice as to where they stay.
“It will affect families left in Australia who have already been through trauma and heartache.”
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