Latest news with #Hokitika
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Three fires across country over weekend
Fire investigators will return to the scene of a blaze in the former Seaview Psychiatric Hospital in Hokitika, which is being treated as suspicious. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller Two house fires kept fire fighters in Auckland and the Manawatū District busy overnight while - further south - investigators will return to the scene of a suspicious fire in the former Seaview Psychiatric Hospital in Hokitika. Fire crews worked to extinguish a house fire in a single story home in Feilding which began shortly before 2am. A FENZ spokesperson said six fire trucks - from Feilding, Bunnythorpe, Milson, Palmerston North - fought the blaze. One person was treated for possible smoke inhalation by ambulance staff at the scene. The spokesperson said the blaze was suppressed by 3.40am but, as of 6am, five crews remained at the scene dampening down hotspots and monitoring for flare ups. The fire is not being treated as suspicious at this stage. Fire crews in Auckland were called to a home in Bombay at 7.17pm on Sunday. The single story residence was well alight by the time crews arrived and, at it's peak, six fire appliances supported by two water tankers fought the blaze. There were no reports of occupants in the building and no injuries were reported. Fire investigators will return to the scene on Monday morning to determine the cause of the fire. Meanwhile, on the West Coast of the South Island, fire investigators will return to the scene of a blaze in the former Seaview Psychiatric Hospital in Hokitika. The fire - which was well involved by the time fire crews arrived shortly after 7.11am on Sunday - is being treated as suspicious . The building had been abandoned after being used as a backpackers and campsite for several years following the closure of the hospital. There were no reports of injuries in the fire. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12 hours ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Seaview Hospital fire: Building's long history in Hokitika
Hokitika's abandoned Seaview Hospital burned on Sunday Morning. Photo: Google Maps It has been a prison, a home for the mentally unwell and a spooky backpackers - and now it is the scene of a suspicious fire. Seven fire crews raced to Hokitika's abandoned Seaview Hospital on Sunday morning, perched on the hill just north of the town, to find the Kotuku building well alight in a spectacular blaze. It was out by evening, but the cause of the fire is now under investigation . Inside the Seaview Hospital. Photo: Supplied / Jane Comeau Historian Jane Comaeu wrote her masters thesis on the hospital - formerly known as Seaview Asylum - and its role in Hokitika's history. She said it began as a wing of the jail, housing people who were considered a threat to themselves or others, in 1871. Old baths remain in some rooms of the hospital. Photo: Supplied / Jane Comeau Public outcry over the treatment of mental patients saw it separated from the main jail building soon afterwards, and given its own superintendent. Psychiatric hospitals often had pretty negative connotations, Comeau said, and often for good reason. "They're spooky, they have ghosts, there's all this trauma - but I think there's this overlooked element of asylums* where they were a respite for people who didn't have a lot else for them in their life." Many who had been housed there suffered from illnesses they were never going to recover from, like dementia or "tertiary syphilis", Comeau said - people who "just needed a place to decline". But they were not as excluded from society as they would have been in other hospitals around the country. It was only a 15-minute walk from the Hokitika township, and the doctor would cycle up there every day. The inhabitants would be taken into town for excursions, and people from the town would come up for dances and parties. Many were cured, and some, when given the chance to leave, chose not to. "The West Coast was full of itinerant miners, people with nowhere to go, people with few social connections, and sometimes it was a choice between the asylum and nothing at all," Comeau said. Paul Breeze, who worked as a nurse at the hospital in the 1990s, said the hospital was a huge employer for Hokitika before dairy took over. "There was a time when there was hardly a household that didn't have a member of the family working there," he said. The patients who ended up there had often landed in the too-hard basket, he said - but they were treated well. It became a self-sufficient little community. By the late 1990s it was beginning to grow its own food, and even had its own fire brigade. Breeze likened it to the iconic British wartime sitcom Dad's Army - nobody was appropriately trained, but staff from various wards pitched in, driving about in a 1932 Ford V8. The brigade stayed active until the hospital's closure in the early 2000s, with only a handful of patients left to transfer elsewhere. The Kotuku building part of Seaview Hospital which burned down on Sunday. Photo: Google Maps Comeau visited the place herself in 2020. "You go through the door and there's a room full of metal bedframes all packed together, and then you walk down a hallway where the ceiling's partially collapsed, and you go into another room and there's a couple of old baths with metal railing where the curtains would have gone," she said. "And then you would have gone into an old games room, or living room, where there's a bunch of old chairs and graffiti all over the walls." Part of the precinct was used as a backpackers and campsite, called Seaview Lodge and Backpackers, for a number of years. The earliest review on Tripadvisor was left in December 2013, and according to later reviews, it remained open until February, with one guest calling it "an amazing place", and "a real curiosity to look around and find ward beds set up". The final review, in July, noted: "The place has once again been abandoned and a member of the cleaning staff advised that it's all closed again, including the hostel." "The graveyard is still eerie," it said. RNZ understands the building which caught on fire was not one used as part of the backpackers. *The word asylum is considered outmoded and often offensive, but Jane Comeau uses it here in order to reflect the attitudes towards mental health at the time. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
20 hours ago
- RNZ News
Fire at former Seaview Hospital in Hokitika treated as suspicious
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon A fire at the former Seaview Hospital in Hokitika is being treated as suspicious. Fire and Emergency were first called to the scene just before 7am Sunday, responding with seven firetrucks from Hokitika, Cobden, Greymouth, Ross, Kokatahi and Kowhitirangi and Moana. Shift manager Ryan Dawson told RNZ the fire had been contained by about 4pm. Firefighters worked their way through the building, picking up objects like roofing iron with machinery to ensure no areas of flame remained underneath. Police confirmed they were inquiring into how the fire started. The precinct was formerly a jail, then a psychiatric hospital. Media reports showed an earlier fire in 2017 caused damage to some of the buildings. It ran as a backpackers and campsite - Seaview Lodge and Backpackers - for several years, but closed sometime between February and July 2024. The earliest review on TripAdvisor was left in December 2013 and, according to later reviews, it remained open until February, with one guest calling it "an amazing place", and "a real curiosity to look around and find ward beds set up". The final review, in July, noted: "The place has once again been abandoned and a member of the cleaning staff advised that it's all closed again, including the hostel." "The graveyard is still eerie," it said. RNZ understands the building which caught on fire was not one used as part of the backpackers. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Fire at former Seaview Hospital in Hokitika treated as suspicous
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon A fire at the former Seaview Hospital in Hokitika is being treated as suspicious. Fire and Emergency were first called to the scene just before 7am Sunday, responding with seven firetrucks from Hokitika, Cobden, Greymouth, Ross, Kokatahi and Kowhitirangi and Moana. Shift manager Ryan Dawson told RNZ the fire had been contained by about 4pm. Firefighters worked their way through the building, picking up objects like roofing iron with machinery to ensure no areas of flame remained underneath. Police confirmed they were inquiring into how the fire started. The precinct was formerly a jail, then a psychiatric hospital. Media reports showed an earlier fire in 2017 caused damage to some of the buildings. It ran as a backpackers and campsite - Seaview Lodge and Backpackers - for several years, but closed sometime between February and July 2024. The earliest review on TripAdvisor was left in December 2013 and, according to later reviews, it remained open until February, with one guest calling it "an amazing place", and "a real curiosity to look around and find ward beds set up". The final review, in July, noted: "The place has once again been abandoned and a member of the cleaning staff advised that it's all closed again, including the hostel." "The graveyard is still eerie," it said. RNZ understands the building which caught on fire was not one used as part of the backpackers. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- General
- RNZ News
Fire crews fighting large building fire near Hokitika
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Fire crews are fighting a blaze in a large building - understood to be an unoccupied former mental health facility - in Seaview, north of Hokitika on Sunday. Emergency services responded to multiple 111 calls shortly after 7am. Seven fire trucks - from Hokitika, Cobden, Greymouth, Ross, Kokatahi and Kowhitirangi, and Moana were at the scene of the blaze Tankers were working in relays to bring water to the site. A Fire and Emergency spokesperson said there were no reports of injuries at this stage. They said there were no initial indications of a suspicious circumstances, but investigators would be working to determine the cause of the fire. Fire crews are expected to be at the scene "for some time". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
