By Rachel Helyer Donaldson of RNZ
Fire and Emergency NZ say crews were forced to rely on water tankers to put out a devastating and dramatic blaze at a country pub and hotel in South Taranaki.
The Waitotara Hotel, which has been described as the heart of the community, has been gutted after a fire started at 6pm yesterday.
Photos showed flames shooting into the sky out of the two-storey tavern's roof.
Taranaki Assistant Commander Shaun Wooller said today that 23 crews - more than 80 firefighters and support staff - from Waverley, Pātea, Hāwera, Eltham, Kohi, Stratford, Whanganui and New Plymouth worked to put out the blaze.
"The first crews arrived at around 6pm to find the building already well alight. All people were accounted for by 10pm, and most crews had left by 1.30am this morning. Two trucks are still at the scene now, monitoring the building for any further signs of fire."
Woolley said he drove from New Plymouth and arrived at the fire at 7.30pm.
"There was a fairly significant fire burning in the upper storey at that point."
The fire started on the ground floor in the kitchen area and had spread to the upper floor by the time the first fire appliance arrived on the scene, he said.
The building was severely damaged.
"The kitchen area was gutted and the upper floors are completely gutted. There's significant roof collapse. The four walls are still up and the chimneys are still up but there is significant damage throughout the building."
Woolley said one of the biggest challenges was water supply. Like many small country towns, Waitotara has no fire hydrants.
"We were struggling with water throughout the early stages of the fire, using tankers. There are no fire hydrants in the town. There is a river quite handy but being able to access that quickly and safely was a challenge."
Crews used water from four Fenz tankers as well as two Fonterra ones, he said.
"That definitely made a difference for us when they arrived and we were quickly able to bring the fire under control once we had that really good volume of water available to us."
Losing the tavern was "devastating" for locals, some of whom were there last night as volunteer firefighters, he said.
"[For] small towns, it's the focal point, it's the town hall, the community hub, it's a meeting point so it's very, very important for those small communities... FENZ is taking our community support very seriously and we're checking in, not only for the welfare of the community but a number of our firefighters who were present last night [and who] have close ties to the community and tavern as well.
"So it was a pretty emotional scene for a number of people who were there from Fire and Emergency, as well as the community."
