A workshop at a Central Otago religious retreat has been engulfed in flames early this morning.
Fire and Emergency NZ communications shift supervisor Ian Littlejohn said crews from Middlemarch, Ranfurly and Naseby converged on the En Hakkore Religious Retreat in Orangapai Sanatorium Rd, near Waipiata, shortly before 5am.
They arrived to find the workshop "well-involved", and got to work with two low pressure hoses to protect the surrounding area, before the blaze died down by about 6am, he said,
"By 6.08am crews started the process of what we call 'turning over '- shifting iron to make sure there were no embers underneath, things like that.''
Six appliances were on scene at the fire's peak. There were fears initially that welding equipment and a fuel tank inside the workshop could explode, but this did not happen.
A fire investigator neither attended nor was requested, suggesting crews at the scene knew the cause and it was not suspicious, Mr Littlejohn said.
The name En-Hakkore comes from the Book of Judges in the Old Testament.
