Smoke alarms tampered with in flat gutted by fire | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

FIRE investigators checking out the cause of a fire that gutted a Masterton flat and could easily have claimed lives were astonished to find that smoke alarms had been deliberately covered up with the bottoms of plastic drink bottles.

Safety Officer Henry Stechman said the "stupidity" of some people never ceased to amaze him.

This was not the first time firemen had been called to the tenanted flat and found attempts had been made to stop alarms from activating.

The blaze gutted the flat ? above The Doctors in Chapel Street ? and damaged other upstairs rooms, putting up to a dozen people at risk.

In the event all managed to flee the building which, Mr Stechman said, had become "completely smoke logged".

"Someone could have died ? that's definite," he said.

The fire broke out about 9.15pm on Wednesday and Mr Stechman said thankfully just enough of the smoke alarms had been left untouched to trigger the automatic calls to the fire station.

He said the building's owner John Heginbotham had ensured that the rooms were properly protected with alarms and that the building fully complied with fire regulations.

It had been the actions of someone staying in the rooms that had put everyone at risk.

Mr Stechman said there was only so much firefighters could do to educate people on the dangers of fire ? "ultimately people have to be responsible for their own safety."

Fire crews didn't take long to bring the Chapel Street under control but had to stay at the scene for hours.

They checked that everyone was evacuated, then had to check over the remainder of the building to ensure there were no pockets of fire remaining.

"We also had to do our best to ventilate the building."

Mr Stechman was back yesterday investigating the cause of the blaze.

He said the bottom sections of 2- litre plastic lemonade bottles had been fashioned to fit over several smoke alarms and had prevented them from sensing smoke and setting off alarms.

It is thought about 10 or 12 people were in the upstairs part of the building when the fire started.

The Doctors was not damaged and was open as usual yesterday.