10 hours ago
Auckland New World ruins handed back to Foodstuffs
Photo:
Lucy Xia
A day after a massive blaze broke out at New World Victoria Park in central Auckland, the fire service has handed over the building - or what's left of it - to its owners, Foodstuffs.
Fire crews left the scene of the fire that took more than 10 hours to extinguish on Wednesday afternoon, and the road had been cleared.
But Fire and Emergency could still not reveal
what caused the fire
.
Foodstuffs North Island's head of property Nick Hanson said he was one of the first people to
look inside the ravaged supermarket
.
"Inside, it's a confronting scene. The building has been significantly affected by fire, smoke and water.
"Much of the damage appears to be in the ceiling area, and ceiling panels have collapsed in several places.
"The scale of what's needed to repair and rebuild will take time to assess."
He said the pathway to re-opening the supermarket was unclear.
He said they were working through options to support their 180 staff in the days and weeks ahead, and in the meantime, they would continue to be paid.
Staff and shoppers outside were emotional seeing their workplace and beloved local supermarket in ruins.
While working in the area for the past 20 years, Diana Robson said the shop was her favourite spot for a pick-me-up during the week.
"It's quite sad. It was a store that had over and above. You could go to other supermarkets but this store had the little niche things you wanted and the staff were lovely and it was just a beautiful store."
At the height of the fire, there were 23 firetrucks and 80 firefighters.
Photo:
RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Nora Galimberti said most of her co-workers shopped at the supermarket, which was across the road from them.
"I'm gutted. Now I don't know where to shop for lunch.
"We have about 40 people in the office and we all shop there daily."
Another regular shopper was also looking for an alternative to their usual lunch: a New World chicken burger.
"I work in the area quite close to Victoria Park. My colleagues and I come here almost every day to grab food so it's pretty devastating. We're going to have to find somewhere else now with cheap food."
One resident hoped their local supermarket would be back soon.
"I'm pleased nobody got injured or killed and I wish the owner a speedy re-build of their business. I wish everybody there well and I'm sad at the loss."
In the meantime, he said he would make the longer trip to a New World in a neighbouring suburb.
FENZ incident controller Phil Larcombe said the fire was particularly challenging because it was initially too dangerous to fight it from inside the building, which had been under renovation.
At the height of the fire, there were 23 firetrucks and 80 firefighters, as well as support personnel on-site.
Larcombe said the incident was a reminder for businesses to check their fire evacuation schemes were in place and meet requirements.
He said they were relieved shoppers who were forced to abandon their shopping carts and vehicles got out safely and quickly.
Since Wednesday, Larcombe said they had been letting people into the supermarket's parking garage to reunite them with their cars.
He said there had been minimal damage to vehicles in the garage.
But the rest of the building was not as lucky. Lacombe said it would likely be a write-off.
"Unfortunately for the local community and the owners it's looking that way.
"The building was very extensively damaged. It's unlikely anything will be salvageable.
He said they were getting a better understanding of what caused the fire.
A FENZ fire investigator and private fire investigators had been at the site.
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