Issue 48 - New Zealand Fire Service

14 Issue No. 48
Incidents
The great fire
of Dargaville
From tragedy comes togetherness and this is
especially true of Dargaville in recent weeks.
In early January a fire tore through Normanby Street – the main road
of Dargaville – burning down a number of businesses.
A decorations store, a video store and a paint store were all badly
damaged. Dargaville CFO Mitch King said that the paint store had provided
plenty of fuel for the inferno. CFO King said it was the biggest blaze
the town had seen since the 1960s.
Firefighters were called at 7.30pm when flames were noticed coming
from the home decorating shop. In just over an hour, the fire had
spread to the surrounding businesses and 20 appliances from around
the region were on the scene.
Over 100 firefighters were called in to help battle the blaze that took
over two hours to bring under control. Even then firefighters remained
at the site all night dampening down hotspots.
Ken Foster, owner of all the buildings which were burnt down was sad
but resolute.
“We’ve just started to settle down, it’s still a bit unbelievable really,
but we are very positive about the future, we’re not going to let this
knock us off our perch.”
After days of investigation, the cause of the fire was pinpointed to a
faulty electrical switchboard.
The owners of the businesses had told fire investigators that they had
been having issues with fuses blowing for some time. FSO Craig Bain
said this was consistent with what he found. “The remnants of a
switchboard and the copper wiring had melted into blobs,” he said.
“If fuses keep popping at home or work it indicates there is something
wrong and it’s time to get an electrician to take a look.”
When the damage to the town was realised, it was quickly decided to
put on a concert in an effort to raise money to help those worst
affected. The Fire Benefit Concert was held on January 30 and was
hosted by My House, My Castle’s Rob Harte – a local.
The concert featured local acts and brought together hundreds of
people from around the community so that the Dargaville businesses,
like a phoenix could rise from the Ashes. Just over $5000 was raised
for the township.