News
The fire that burned for three days last year at the SkyCity International Convention Centre has been found to be accidental.
The roof of the under-construction centre was significantly damaged in the blaze that erupted in October last year, and which took 10 days to fully extinguish.
More than eight million litres of water used to tackle the huge blaze ended up in the carpark, where it rose to 1.5 metres and submerged about 100 cars.
During the fire, Auckland’s CBD came to a standstill with roads closed around the convention centre, most central businesses shut, and people asked to stay away from the billowing smoke.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand have released a report into its findings on the cause of the fire.
Fire and Emergency Te Hiku regional manager Ron Devlin said it was inadvertently caused when the top layers of a waterproofing membrane – or cap sheet – were being laid on the roof.
“Our investigators concluded the fire started after the cardboard inner of a cap sheet roll was momentarily exposed to a flame from a worker’s gas torch and began to smoulder,” Devlin said.
“After smouldering unnoticed inside the roll, an intense fire developed that burnt through the top layer of the cap sheet, and then spread across the level 7 roof membrane.”
Fire and Emergency NZ found this to be consistent with tests and a scenario recreation they had conducted.
Strong winds had also contributed to significant spread of fire across the roof, investigators say.
The findings bring an end to speculation last year that a worker had left a blowtorch on and went for lunch, with investigators adding that there were no inexperienced contractors working in the area at the time.
Devlin said crews spent a huge number of hours working on the fire, with nearly 30 appliances and about 150 firefighters tackling it at its peak.
Source: rnz.co.nz Republished by arrangement.