A large fire which swept through a boiler house at Gloriavale Christian Community at Lake Haupiri on Friday night has rendered the community’s commercial meal plant out of action for months at least. Community spokesman Peter Righteous said the blaze erupted in the rendering plant boiler house — about 500m away from the living quarters and community buildings — shortly before 9pm, extensively damaging the boilers and electrics supporting plant operations. ‘‘It will be out for several months,’’ he said. One of the two boilers and the electrical supply were destroyed. A team of around four trained firefighters living at Gloriavale did their best to battle the blaze before the nearest brigades arrived from Moana and Ngahere, Mr Righteous said. Moana Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Dave Larkin said the response was quickly escalated to a second-stage alarm, the Greymouth and Brunner brigades being dispatched to what was a ‘‘big one’’. The 20sq m boiler house was fully involved in flames and had already been evacuated when they arrived. Over two and a-half hours, numerous fire crews, supported by the Greymouth-based Fire and Emergency Command Unit, worked to quell the blaze. CFO Larkin said the Gloriavale crew had successfully prevented the fire from spreading before the local brigades arrived. ‘‘It wasn’t going to cause any problems but there were other buildings around. ‘‘From my understanding, I think they know how it started … it’s an unfortunate incident,’’ he said. Scene commander Greymouth brigade Deputy Fire Chief Colin Thomas said the fire was reasonably large, with a lot of material in the building fuelling it. ‘‘By the time we got there, the fire had been knocked down. ‘‘It’s done some damage to their plant, which will take time to rectify. ‘‘Because of the nature of the fire and the amount of stuff in the building, it took time.’’ One firefighter suffering heat exhaustion was taken to hospital in the course of the response as a precautionary measure. DFC Thomas said a ‘‘potential issue’’ which might have caused the fire had been tentatively identified but there was nothing suspicious about it. The meal plant is one of several businesses operated by Gloriavale as part of its Lake Haupiri community. It renders beef and sheep offal plus animal skins into a commercial product. Mr Righteous said the plant employed about a dozen people, including engineers in the community. A timeline around resuming operations would emerge soon, he said.
