Six confirmed dead so far after Wellington fire, part of hostel still to be searched

What you need to know:

• A suspicious fire broke out at Wellington’s Loafers Lodge hostel in Newtown overnight.
• Six people are confirmed dead. The total number of deaths is not yet known.
• Police say they can not confirm how many people are missing. People with missing friends or family should call police on 105.
• Some hostel residents escaped through the building’s windows. Parts of the hostel have now collapsed.
• There were no sprinklers in the building.

Do you have information, photos or videos? Call 0800 366 767 or email newstips@stuff.co.nz

Me mōhio e koe:

• I whitawhita ake tētahi ahi i te whare noho o Loafers Lodge i Newtown, i Pōneke inapō
• E ono hemihemi ngā tāngata kua mate. Kāore anō kia mōhio ki te tapeke o ngā matenga.
• Tekau mā tahi tonu e ngaro ana. Me he tāngata e ngaro ana i ētahi whānau, me waea ki ngā pirihimana ki 105.
• Tērā ētahi kainoho kua kōrero mō te whakarere rā ngā matapihi o te whare.
• E titiro pī ana ki te ahi.
• Kāhore he tāuwhi wai i te whare.

He mōhiohio, he pikitia, he kiriata rānei āu? Īmēratia newstips@stuff.co.nz

Six people are confirmed to have died in the fire at a Wellington hostel, but emergency services have not yet been able to search all of the building.

Fire and Emergency (Fenz) incident commander Bruce Stubbs said the roof had collapsed on the top floor of the Loafers Lodge building in the inner suburb of Newtown. There was “a lot of destruction” on the top floor.

A significant amount of debris and structural members had come down, he said during a briefing late Tuesday afternoon.

”We have located six people, and we have treated them with respect, and ensured that the evidence and the scene around them is made safe,” Stubbs said.

READ MORE:
* In pictures: ‘Once-in-a-decade’ fire breaks out in Wellington hostel
* Dozens feared dead after fire breaks out in central Wellington hostel
* Live: Loafers Lodge hostel fire in Wellington a ‘multi-fatality incident’

Fenz was checking to see if alarms had gone off at the time of the fire.

Police acting Wellington district commander Inspector Dion Bennett said it was going to take some time to confirm who had been inside the hostel at the time of the fire.

He appealed for anyone who was concerned they had not heard from someone who might have been inside to ring the police 105 phone number, and use the reference Operation Rose.

Asked if earlier police comments were still accurate that their initial assessment was that “the number of deceased is fewer than 10”, Bennett said it was still accurate, based on information provided by Fenz.

Stubbs confirmed the fire was being treated as suspicious, while Bennett said police couldn’t comment of the cause of the fire until a thorough scene examination was carried out.

Chief Coroner Judge Anna Tutton said in a case like this identification of bodies could be a painstaking, slow, complex process, and that process would take time.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said about 50 people had been displaced by the fire. New accommodation had been found for almost 20 of them.

Residents described a night of confusion and fear after the fire broke out.

Tamrat Isse Adan, who lived on the second floor, escaped early on Tuesday in the dark after he smelt smoke while going to the toilet, losing everything except his jacket and his phone. He did not know where he would sleep on Tuesday night.

“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.”

The smoke alarms went off so often that people did not realise it was a fire, he said.

“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.”

The large fire broke out in the middle of the night on the top floor of the 94-room Loafers Lodge hostel in Newtown. Emergency services were called to the fire at 12.25am.

Neighbour Charlotte Davenport and her partner opened the curtains at about 2am to see the building alight with thick smoke billowing towards the Basin. Although they live a block away, they could hear the fire.

“We could hear these loud popping sounds. Any time the fire crew put out flames, ten minutes later there would be another spot alight. We could hear the fire crew yelling out instructions.

“Our concern was that the building was going to collapse, it was that [badly] engulfed.”

Davenport was horrified and said she worried about elderly people who lived on the top floor, who might not have been able to get down the stairs.

Fire and Emergency deputy national commander Brendan Nally said firefighters heroically helped about 50 to 60 people escape from Loafers Lodge in the middle of the night.

He estimated “several dozen” people were alive because of the actions of firefighters. “They have saved lots of lives today” but were devastated they could not save everyone.

Nally expected the number of people unaccounted for to drop “a little”. It was too early to say how many had died, he said. Follow our live coverage here.

A senior emergency services source confirmed the fire was being treated as suspicious.

Firefighters would not be able to confirm the numbers of dead until they could enter the building, which remained too dangerous, with the roof of the lodge at risk of collapse.

Just before midday firefighters were continuing to spray the building with water, after reports of fresh smoke from the top of the building.

Four people were taken to Wellington Hospital, where they were in a stable condition.

Fenz has confirmed there were no sprinklers in the building, which made the situation worse.

District manager Nick Pyatt described as a “once-in-a-decade fire” and said, “It doesn’t get worse than this.”

While there were no sprinklers in the building, alarms sounded and residents described their confusion and panic at waking to the smell of smoke.

Residents aged from their early 20s through to their 70s were evacuated from the building, many leaving so quickly that they had no shoes or personal possessions. Residents included a number of migrant nurses who were staying in Loafers Lodge. According to one source, all those known to be current residents have been accounted for.

Many residents of the lodge were transient and under the care of the Wellington City Mission, said city missioner Murray Edridge. He could not comment on whether any of those residents were among the dead or injured.

“This is an absolute disaster. These are people who are inherently vulnerable anyway. It’s a tragedy for our community.”

Most residents evacuated in the early morning to the sports clubrooms at Newtown Park, where they could shower and the city council provided people with food, blankets, and hygiene products.

The lodge was not used as emergency housing by the Ministry of Social Development, but had been in the past.

Hostel resident Paul Jury thought the smoke alarms sounding were yet another false alarm.

Jury was at the community centre on Tuesday morning, and said the mood inside was one of “shock and sadness”, as well as relief when people reunited with their families.

Loafers Lodge manager Marie Murphy had managed the lodge for 13 years and said it was home to a range of people.

“We’ve got everyone living there. We’ve had doctors, nurses, unemployed people, meat workers, hospital staff. All sorts of people. A real variety of people,” she 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. I really have no information about what has happened yet.”

Local MP for Rongotai Paul Eagle said the feeling in Newtown was one of “sorrow, with people in tears”.

“It’s devastating. I mean, people were coming up to the cordon area going, ‘We’ve got food, people can come stay with me, we’ve got a spare room. That’s the nature of Newtown.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins arrived at the scene of the fire about 11am, after describing it as an “absolute tragedy”.

There would be investigations into what happened and why, but the focus was on the immediate aftermath.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau spoke to media earlier in the morning, describing the fire as a “truly tragic situation” and saying she was “filled with emotion”. It was the worst outcome.

”I’m feeling a lot of pain and emotion at those who have been lost.”