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RNZ News
15 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.
CBS News
03-08-2025
- Automotive
- CBS News
Firefighters control large blaze at South Gate auto shop
It took firefighters nearly an hour to extinguish a large fire burning at a South Gate auto shop on Saturday morning. The fire was first reported at around 1:15 a.m. in the 5900 block of E. Firestone Boulevard near El Paseo Street, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Shortly after arriving at the scene, crews designated the fire a second alarm due to large flames shooting from the roof of the building. Nearly 80 firefighters were called to assist with the battle, which could be seen from video captured by bystanders. Some firefighters stood on tall towers extending above the fire as they pointed houses onto the blaze. It's unclear what sparked the fire and an investigation is underway. No injuries were reported.
BBC News
31-07-2025
- BBC News
Penzance Police Station evacuated after officer falls ill
A police station was evacuated when an officer became unwell after being in contact with an unknown and Cornwall Police said the officer had been taken to hospital for treatment after the incident at Penzance Police Station on Wednesday. The force said there had been a concern for the welfare of a woman who had been in the police station at the time but she was later found and had not been and fire crews were called to the scene and after an assessment the station was reopened. Officers are looking into the circumstances of the incident.
The Independent
02-07-2025
- The Independent
Aerial footage shows scene of devastation after huge explosion at fireworks warehouse
Smoke was seen billowing from a burning pyrotechnics warehouse in California following a huge explosion which caused several fireworks to be ignited. Aerial footage taken on Tuesday (1 July) shows fireworks shooting from the building, sparking multiple blazes across the surrounding farmland. Locals fled to safety as officials placed a one-mile evacuation order due to the 'immediate threat to life'. 'We strongly urge everyone to continue avoiding the area for the next several days so that fire crews, law enforcement, and emergency personnel can do their jobs safely and effectively,' The Yolo County Sheriff's Office said. It confirmed that there were no immediate reports of injuries and that it would be launching an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
CNN
02-07-2025
- CNN
Fireworks warehouse explodes in California
Fire crews responded to a large explosion at a fireworks warehouse in California on July 1st. Several explosions could be seen from the building, which sparked additional spot fires. The sheriff's office said a one-mile evacuation order was put in place around the area where the fire was burning.
