It appears likely central Dunedin bar Suburbia will have its licence reinstated despite one district licensing commissioner telling a duty manager he was "not impressed'' by her evidence.
Suburbia's licence was suspended after it was found by the Fire Service to be severely overcrowded on May 22 after a fire alarm activation.
Station Officer Anthony O'Neill estimated 300 people were still in the bar up to four minutes after the alarm activated on the night in question, despite the bar being licensed to hold only 160.
The Dunedin District Licensing Committee reserved its decision following a hearing yesterday, but the Fire Service said it was comfortable about the bar's licence being reinstated.
Bar owner Ian Lindsay offered evidence to the committee to show the work staff had undertaken to up their game since the incident.
East Otago fire risk management officer Mike Harrison said he had reviewed the changes made and was comfortable about the work the bar had done.
The Fire Service's concession came after commissioner Wayne Idour criticised the testimony of the bar's duty manager on May 22, Dana Smith.
Mr Idour constantly reminded Miss Smith she was under oath after she answered his questions and at one point said she was "talking in circles''.
"I could ask a lot more questions. I'm not going to. But I'm going to make the comment that I'm not impressed with your evidence here today,'' he said after questioning her.
Miss Smith testified she was identified as the chief fire warden at the time of the evacuation, that the bar was near or modestly over capacity and that she was "confident'' of the accuracy of her head count.
Mr Idour raised issues with the accuracy of Miss Smith's statements about those matters and she was reduced to tears by his questioning.
It emerged during the hearing that CCTV footage of the night in question had been recorded and could have been used to clarify the issue of overcrowding.
However, neither the owner or his staff produced it as evidence and Mr Lindsay said it was "not the best quality'' and had "probably been recorded over''.
Miss Smith, Mr Lindsay and another duty manager, Tacey Millard, all testified that the Fire Service was mistaken in its estimate of 300 people being in the bar at the time.
All conceded the limit had probably been exceeded, but not to that degree.
Mr O'Neill said after his fire crew arrived they waited "at least a minute'' to allow some of the crowd to evacuate the bar before entering.
Despite that, when the firefighters entered they were "using force to get through the crowd ... moving people out of the way''.
"My crew were trying to make entry into the premises, obviously hindered by the huge amount of people,'' he said.
He stood by his estimate and said the evacuation was affected by the overcrowding.
Serious crush injuries and multiple deaths were ‘‘highly possible'' if an actual fire had gripped the premises.
The faulty thermal detector, which caused the first callout, was set off again about 4am and resulted in another alarm activation.
When firefighters arrived on that occasion they found several staff still in the building, including the basement-level bar, despite the fire alarm.
Committee chairman Colin Weatherall said he, Mr Idour and Cr Andrew Noone would make their decision in due course.
"We need to be confident that the health and safety risk has been recognised and that we aren't going to see a breach of this size in front of us again,'' he said.
The bar's licence is up for renewal on June 27.
