Scout leaders 'emotional' after hall razed by fire

The Roslyn Scout Hall, badly damaged by a large fire yesterday, which led to smoke billowing over a large part of Dunedin, has been vandalised regularly over the past year, with windows smashed and doors kicked in.

No-one was thought to be inside when the fire broke out.

In a statement, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) said at 9pm yesterday firefighters were still at the scene. at the city end of School St in Kaikorai.

A heavy digger had started to demolish the front of the building and to expose the remaining areas of fire.

Work continued overnight, and this morning a few firefighters were still dampening down the site.

Road closures were still in place and people were advised to avoid the area. An investigation into the cause of the fire had begun.

The large two-storey building was no longer used by the Roslyn Scout group, the group having folded more than 12 months ago. The building was more than 100 years old, having started out as a church, and was made of timber.

The hall was not believed to have any live electricity connections in it.

Scout leaders Shaun Adie and Glen Ford were emotional watching the hall burn yesterday, thinking of all the time they had spent inside.

"I started there in 2000 and have done a lot of work in there," Mr Ford said.

"It is emotional. I’ve been involved for a long time. Probably 30 odd years. And to see it today like this," Mr Adie said.

Mr Adie said they had been trying to get on top of vandalism which had been occurring at the hall.

"Young kids just smash in windows. Just breaking into it all the time. You try and fix things, but they just come back and do some more."

The hall was basically empty although there was a few Scout items in the building which would be gone now, Mr Adie said.

"It is a huge hall. But a nice hall. Two-storeys and lots of rooms. You can see it [the fire] now, getting into the kitchen on the upper storey and it is going to go now," Mr Ford said.

The hall would have been tinder dry, Mr Adie said.

Mr Ford said the group was in talks with the Dunedin City Council about giving the property back to the council. Other people at the fire said the property had been sold or was in the process of a sale. Scouts NZ could not be contacted last night.

Eagle-eyed firefighters returning to the Roslyn Fire Station after another job noticed smoke at 3.35pm and quickly swung into action.

More than 10 Fenz appliances went to the scene and smoke from the fire could be seen from many parts of Dunedin. A warning was sent to phones to stay away from the area.

There were large clouds of smoke coming from the fire for large periods, and the smoke continued for at least three hours.

Police were at the fire early on and dispersed people from the area because of concern about smoke.