What we know a day after the fatal fire at Loafers
While there is still a lot of uncertainty and people unaccounted for, questions are emerging about accommodation standards and protections for those who called Loafers home
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Wednesday, May 17 by Anna Rawhiti-Connell. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: no confidence vote in Gore’s mayor shelved; dawn raids were taking place as government prepared to apologise; what really happened when Dennis Conner stormed out of his interview with Paul Holmes; but first, FENZ confident that police will be able to start their investigation into the fatal fire at a Wellington hostel today
(Image: Getty)
What we know this morning
Following yesterday’s fatal fire at Loafers Lodge in Wellington where six people lost their lives, 11 people are still unaccounted for. The Herald has a good summary this morning of what is currently known. Emergency services have not yet been able to search all of the building so confirmation of further fatalities can’t be made until that is done. Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) assistant national commander Bruce Stubbs told the AM show this morning he is confident that the building is now safe for police to start their investigation. There is still a lot of uncertainty about what happened and plenty of questions swirling about the cause of the fire, the safety of the building and standards of accommodation. Police have said the fire was unexplained at this stage while Stubbs said the fire was being treated as “suspicious”. The city has rallied with an appeal set up via the Wellington City Mission to help provide meals, clothing and support to those affected. Wellington City Council says nearly 50 people who have been displaced as a result of the fire have found temporary accommodation.
Questions about warning systems and prevention
Newshub reported last night that while survivors say alarms did go off, they were often ignored because there had been too many false alarms in the past. One resident who had lived at Loafers for three years said “the fire alarm has been going off for three years, at 12am, 3am, 5 in the morning and we ignore it.” Fire and Emergency will look into this as part of its investigation. The Herald’s Thomas Coughlan has a comprehensive and thorough breakdown (paywalled) of exactly why the hostel didn’t have sprinklers. New Zealand’s building code does not mandate sprinklers in multi-storey residential buildings like Loafers. A key question for any inquiry will be whether all multi-storey residential buildings should be required to have sprinklers installed. Coughlan also looks into the age of our fire truck fleet and how well equipped our fire service is to deal with these kinds of incidents.
Building had warrant of fitness but expert says safety rules need better enforcement
Loafers had a building warrant of fitness and RNZ’s Phil Pennington breaks down exactly what that means. Housing minister Megan Wood confirmed the building was checked by an independent expert just two months ago. Pennington also spoke with Dr Geoff Thomas, a fire engineer who has studied boarding house risks, who said safety rules for multi-unit blocks needed better enforcement. Thomas notes that crowded or high-risk buildings like shopping malls, office blocks and hospitals have high hazards, but a lot of protections and said that transient accommodation was a weak spot.
Anger rising about tragedy amid a housing shortage
The Guardian’s Tess McClure does a good, careful job of starting to unravel some of the sentiment being expressed about the state of housing in New Zealand. As McClure details, Loafers Lodge is one of a network of hostels, motels and boarding houses that are home to some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable communities: those on sickness and disability benefits, elderly people, the previously homeless, ex-prisoners, those deported under Australia’s “501” deportation policy. While minister of social development Carmel Sepuloni confirmed the lodge had not been used as emergency housing since 2020, it was part of a less formal network of temporary accommodation. Heleyni Pratley, a public housing advocate, said “This calamity is a result of a seriously defunded, unplanned and privatised housing system.” As politicians expressed their condolences and thanked emergency services for their work in the House yesterday, co-leader of the Greens James Shaw asked, “What kind of country are we, where those people have so few options in life but to live in substandard accommodation, with a reasonable chance of lethality?
Help us deliver quality local journalism that people depend on
The eventful start to the year has underscored one again just how important quality local journalism is. If you have the means, please consider supporting our mahi by becoming a member. Reader contributions are essential to ensuring we can continue telling important local stories and make them freely available to all. Donate today.
Vote of no confidence in Gore’s mayor shelved
As Stewart Sowman-Lund details, Gore’s mayor Ben Bell survived a vote of no confidence yesterday – because nobody ended up pushing for one. The lack of support for the vote, with no councillors wanting to move the motion, was met with applause and cheering from within the council room and public gallery. It’s quite a backdown after seven of the the district’s 10 councillors met with Bell last week and asked him to resign, saying they had lost confidence in him. As the Herald’s Kurt Bayer reports in a piece with the homepage headline “Bell of the brawl”, deputy mayor Keith Hovell tabled an amended motion that the council work with Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) to develop amended terms of reference for an independent review to restore confidence in the council.
Dawn raids took place as government planned apology
RNZ Pacific’s Lydia Lewis reports that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) was conducting out of hours compliance visits to private residents otherwise known less euphemistically as “dawn raids”, while the government was preparing for the historic Dawn Raids apology in 2021. INZ has confirmed to RNZ that there were three visits between July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. The apology took place on August 1, 2021. It follows recent news that these visits were still taking place, prompting a “please explain” letter to INZ from immigration minister Michael Wood. All out of hours visits have now been paused as the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) conducts a review.
Charlotte Muru-Lanning’s The Boil Up has become essential reading for foodies and a recent edition on the deputy principal reviewing fish-and-chip shops in Christchurch was featured in Substack’s official round up of great reads. It’s more than food though - each week Muru-Lanning unpicks a little bit more of what this country is about, proving the way to our hearts is through our stomaches. Subscribe to get well fed every single Thursday.
Click and collect
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll shows 69.4% of people think the government isn’t doing enough to address falling literacy and numeracy rates
What property do MPs own and what gifts were they given - it’s pecuniary interest register season
The Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed concern about New Zealand’s proposed mass arrivals law change
Can ChatGPT write good book blurbs? Just a light plug for the Auckland Writers Festival this weekend and the session that takes that further and asks whether AI can write a book
As mask mandates end in Japan, people are turning to tutors to relearn how to smile
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
If you liked what you read today, share The Bulletin with friends, family and colleagues.
Each recruit to the NZDF costs $4000 in advertising spend, Shanti Mathias reports. Will a pay boost in the budget make the military a more appealing career? Toby Manhire asks what happens if the election is a dead heat. A city-based lawyer breaks down how much she spends for The Cost of Being. Wayne Hapi draws on his past life as a youth worker for a role in The Gone, he tells Sam Brooks. Social service kaimahi are hidden heroes, says Claire Achmad, arguing for more funding for these roles.
Sporting snippets
France has pulled out of hosting the 2025 Rugby League World Cup which may create an opportunity in Australasia
NRL refs involved in series of controversial calls stood down
Why Dennis Conner walked out on Paul Holmes interview
Media Chaplaincy New Zealand is a support service for all those who work in the media in New Zealand. They also have a podcast on RNZ, re-covering, where Rev Frank Ritchie sits down with top New Zealand journalists to unpack the one story that most impacted them, personally and professionally. This week’s episode features Cameron Bennett. I read Bennett and Liam Jeory’s book, Foreign Correspondents, at a young age and it was probably the start of my interest in journalism. The Herald has a good read on what Bennett, who was working as a producer for Paul Holmes when the now-infamous Dennis Conner interview took place, had to say about that incident and the entire episode is a great listen.
