Loafers Lodge: Survivors' advocate hopes manslaughter charges bring closure
Fire broke out at the Loafers Lodge building in the early hours of 16 May, 2023, with almost 100 residents inside. Five were killed. Charges have now been laid in connection to the case.
Photo:
RNZ /Angus Dreaver
Wellington's city missioner says
three new charges of manslaughter
over the fire at Loafers Lodge are a step closer to closure for families and former residents.
The
blaze just over two years ago
killed five of the building's 92 residents.
The police said the newly accused - two men, aged 75 and 58, and a 70-year-old woman - each face five charges of manslaughter, and were involved with the management and operation of the building, responsible for aspects of its fire safety.
The defendants entered no plea when they appeared in court on Thursday afternoon, and Judge Peter Hobbs remanded the trio on bail to appear in the court later in the month.
He included orders for the trio not to have contact with each other, or a fourth individual yet to appear, and granted interim name suppression.
Flames seen in the top storey of the Loafers Lodge building in Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington.
Photo:
Supplied / Axel Dann
Police said they expect to lay charges against another man in coming days.
Murray Edridge from the Wellington City Mission told RNZ he remained in contact with a number of former residents of the lodge, and said people were still suffering from the trauma.
"It's clear that there's still significant trauma associated with the fire. It feels like it's an unconcluded process and people are still in pain."
He hoped the court process now underway would help people find closure.
"So many questions have remained unanswered," he said.
"It may be that the accountability that appears to be coming from the newly laid charges will help people get to some point of conclusion with their own trauma."
Separately, a 50-year-old man, who has name suppression, has previously been charged with murder and arson, and is due to stand trial in August.
Meanwhile, the gutted three-storey building stands virtually unchanged on Adelaide Road and its future remains unclear.
Edridge said it was a constant reminder of the pain former residents went through.
Loafers Lodge on the night of the blaze.
Photo:
RNZ / Denise Garland
Association of Building Compliance chief executive Trent Fearnley told RNZ these types of charges were the first he had heard of.
"Generally speaking, there has been some issues of non-compliance where we have had dangerous buildings that have been acknowledged by the council and Fire Emergency New Zealand, but that's also a rare case."
Fearnley said events like the Loafers Lodge fire put a spotlight on building compliance.
"We are always constantly improving and this was just a reminder that we need to continue to constantly improve."
He said the charges were a reminder of what can happen if people did not do their job responsibly.
University of Auckland law professor Julia Tolmie said under the Crimes Act, those who were in control of something that might endanger life had to use reasonable care to avoid danger.
Tolmie said if that was breached and it resulted in death that would be culpable homicide or effectively manslaughter.
She believed operators of accommodation services would be taking note of the latest charges.
Fire and Emergency use a skylift to assess damage to Loafers Lodge following the fatal fire.
Photo:
RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Mayor Tory Whanau told RNZ she was pleased police had undertaken "such a thorough investigation leading to the laying of these charges".
"We will await the outcome of the trial," she said. "My heart goes out to the whānau and friends of those who perished in the Loafers Lodge fire, who continue to grieve."
The fire triggered a
series of inquiries into fire protections
.
A Wellington City Council audit released in June 2023 found 25 similar buildings in the capital. Twenty-one had a current building warrant of fitness, one never had one and three did, but they were not current.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) launched a probe into 37 similar buildings - that is, boarding houses at least three storeys tall, with no sprinklers - and found more than 100 problems, including smoke detectors not working and unmonitored alarm systems.
It also found the boarding houses were on average 60 years old. Most were not built originally to be accommodation and 69 percent had issues with safety systems.
At the time of the two-year anniversary, the Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk told RNZ he expected the final report and recommendations to be delivered within weeks, and that it would be made public shortly after.
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