SCOTT HAMMOND

Man injured in Blenheim house fire

A man ran for safety as a spectacular fire engulfed a two-storey house in Blenheim last night.

The 23-year-old man, originally from Nelson, was taken to hospital with minor burn injuries and was treated and discharged.

A neighbour said the man rushed out of the Alabama Rd house just as neighbours and passersby arrived to help about 5.30pm.

The man was the only person in the house, among a group of homes on a rear section.

He rented if with his girlfriend, although they were due to move out today.

A neighbour said the man's sister had furniture and belongings in the house and was going to collect them when they moved out.

A neighbour said she heard the fire crackling as she watched television and called the Fire Service.

The woman was upset last night and said she was worried the fire might spread to her property.

"I would have been trapped in my section if the fire spread to my section. Someone would have had to help me over the fence."

Liz Hampton and Kayla Marsh said they saw a lot of smoke followed by high flames as they drove past the house after finishing work at the Unichem Pharmacy in Redwoodtown.

The Fire Service sent four volunteer crews from Blenheim and Renwick to tackle the blaze, and police set up traffic cordons between Scott St and Redwood St.

Blenheim chief fire officer Rob Dalton said the house was engulfed when firefighters arrived.

"All we could see was flames leaping out of the house. It was too dangerous for us to go in."

Firefighters worked in two crews on either side of the house to prevent the flames from spreading to neighbouring houses.

A Marlborough Lines worker cut power to the house as the fire was being put out.

The fire was under control by 6.30pm and firefighters continued working to dampen down hotspots.

St John Ambulance had to treat one fireman for minor cut wounds, which he received after tripping over in the driveway, Mr Dalton said.

Fire investigator Lewis Jones and Blenheim CIB were this morning due to start investigating. Mr Jones said there were no early indications of what may have caused the fire.

"We need to secure that roof which is hanging loosely and then we will start our investigation."

BLAZE FULL-ON IN MINUTES

Craig Forman joined the Rarangi Fire Brigade on Monday, but his fire safety instinct went into overdrive early last night.

The Blenheim company director was driving home after dropping off his son at football practice when he saw smoke billowing from a house on Alabama Rd, in Blenheim, about 5.30pm.

The sky was filled with dark smoke within minutes, Mr Forman said.
"We're talking three minutes maximum. One minute there was nothing, two minutes later she was all on.

"I saw flames leaping above the house and I knew it was a big deal, I had to help somehow."

Mr Forman grabbed a hose from a neighbouring property and started spraying the grass which was starting to catch alight.

"The heat was so intense, mate, I was standing a good 20 metres back and it felt like I was actually inside a log fire.

"It was bloody unreal, really."

He knew there was nothing he could do to save the house.

"It was beyond repair, there was definitely nothing anybody could do to save it, that's a fact.

"I'm just glad nobody was seriously hurt."

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG

Last updated 19:05 21/06/2011

Car parks don't worry homeowner

A house in Kinross St, Blenheim, will sit in the middle of a car park as the Marlborough District Council paves the way for 50 extra parks outside the Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000.

Work on turning the former site of the Radio Network building in Kinross St into a pay-and-display car park was approved last week by the council. It is estimated it will cost $100,000 to seal and light the area.

Winston Ball owns the house at 12 Kinross St, next to the demolished Radio Network site. He did not mind being surrounded by a car park on three sides of his property and said it was only noisy on Saturday nights.

He was not worried about the new parking area being developed.

"You can't stop progress."

In the 30 years he had lived at the property, he had seen his neighbours leave and their houses turned into car parks.

The council had tried to buy his home in the past, but he did not want to sell because he did not drive and it was convenient for him to live in town.

A council report says the long-term plan is to buy Mr Ball's property and the council has made several approaches to buy the land from him.

Three sites along Grove Rd and Sinclair St by the Railway Station are also being turned into free car parking for the new Blenheim i-Site, which is due to open at the end of July. The work is being done to replace car parks the i-Site was built on and to clean up one of the main entrances into Blenheim. Landscaping and sealing the area is expected to cost $200,000.

Mayor Alistair Sowman gave those using the site on the corner of Dillons Point Rd and Grove Rd as a free car sales site until the end of the weekend to move their cars before work begins this week.

A third car park will be created at the proposed site of the Farmers store in Wynen St, after the latest developer pulled out.

The Kinross St and Wynen St car parks will have 150 spaces between them.

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG

Last updated 17:00 21/06/2011

Man injured in Blenheim house fire

A man has been injured in a major house fire in Blenheim tonight.

Blenheim Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Rob Dalton said a man was taken by St John Ambulance to Wairau Hospital with minor burns.

The man was the only one in the two-storey house, on a back section off Alabama Rd, Mr Dalton said.

About 20 firefighters from the Blenheim and Renwick volunteer fire brigades were called to the fire at 5.30pm.

Blenheim police also attended, setting up traffic cordons to block the road.

The fire was under control by 6.30pm, with firefighters remaining to dampen down hotspots, Mr Dalton said.

No one has entered the house as the roof is thought to be in danger of collapse, he said.

A neighbour told The Marlborough Express she called emergency services after seeing that the house was on fire.

The house was for sale, she said.

- The Marlborough ExpressSIMON WONG

Last updated 19:05 21/06/2011

The Marlborough Express

HOUSE FIRE: A man was injured in this house fire in Blenheim.

Ash cloud sends ferry bookings sky high

The Cook Strait ferries have been the main beneficiaries of the disruption to air services caused by the ash cloud drifting around the southern hemisphere from Chile's Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano.

KiwiRail spokeswoman Cathie Bell said travel on the Interislander between Picton and Wellington was up 100 per cent on Thursday, but was back to normal a day later.

The Auckland-Wellington Overlander train service did not run on Thursday but was full both ways on Friday. The Tranzcoastal service between Picton and Christchurch has not run since the February 22 earthquake.

Bluebridge spokeswoman Wendy Pannett said they had experienced a small surge in Cook Strait bookings.

The effect of the ash cloud on rental car companies was mixed.

Avis Rental Cars managing director Kathryn O'Neil said her company had not gained from the air disruption.

"There have been people wanting to go one way to various places and we've accommodated that when we can, but we've also got cancellations [from people who could not fly]."

Other rental car companies reported a similar situation.

Bus and Coach Association chief executive Raewyn Bleakley said the major companies had reported only a small increase in bookings.

No extra services had been required, she said.

Airport shops in Wellington had suffered, as most passengers knew their flights had been cancelled and simply stayed home.

Woodward Group general manager Samantha Lacoua said business for food outlets had been "rather quiet" because of the interruptions.

Meanwhile, a family whose plans to make a new life in Australia – after surviving the Christchurch earthquake – were thwarted by flight disruptions made it safely to their new home at the weekend.

Zamela Henry, partner Daniel Berryman and their children, Lucy and Sam, fled to Dunedin on the day of the deadly 6.3 quake, later moving in with family in Blenheim.

However, their plans to start a new life in Australia last week were thwarted when their flights were cancelled because of the ash cloud.

The family were rebooked and left New Zealand on Friday without any further delays, Ms Henry said.

They were happy to have made it, she said.

"We just had to get over the wee obstacles in our way."

Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer yesterday said flights should not be disrupted for the next few days.

However, the volcano was still erupting and there was no guarantee travellers would not face further disruption, he said.

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG AND FAIRFAX

Last updated 17:00 20/06/2011

Memories revived at opening

The official opening of the redeveloped Wairau Hospital in Blenheim on Saturday felt more like a reunion as former staff gathered among officials to celebrate a new era for the 125-year-old hospital.

As former nurses and tutors Elaine Hadfield and Janette Steel inspected the new halls of the hospital, both were stopped, greeted and hugged at the opening by former co-workers and students, who shared a quick memory and a laugh.

Mrs Steel said staff and students formed a strong bond during their time at the hospital.

"No-one forgets anyone around here. That's the thing I value most."

Both said times and practices had changed since they began working at the hospital in the 1950s, and they were impressed with the redevelopment.

Ms Hadfield began her training in 1950 in wards that were more like long corridors with beds lined up along opposite walls, and had to wheel a screen to beds to give patients privacy.

Wards did not have separate patient rooms then, she said.

Mrs Steel saw a lot of development during her almost 30-year career at the hospital, including the construction of the recreation hall and a chapel.

She had a rapid introduction to hospital life in 1956 as her three-month preliminary nursing study was cut short when more nurses were needed in the wards during a polio outbreak. But she did not feel under-prepared and was always supervised.

Both said their work included duties quite different to what a nurse was expected to do today, including cleaning walls and delivering morning and afternoon tea to patients.

Mrs Steel said she was asked to become a tutor at the hospital after spending two years teaching at a nursing school in Fiji. She taught practical areas to nursing students, while Ms Hadfield took care of the theoretical side.

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG

Last updated 17:00 20/06/2011

Car sellers keen for new park

The Marlborough District Council should provide an area for people wanting to sell their cars after the unofficial car sales lot on Grove Rd, in Blenheim, is turned into carparking, one seller says.

Lukas Javurek, originally from the Czech Republic, said it was a good idea the council was taking the land at the corner of Grove and Dillons Point roads and making it a nicer space, but it should come up with an alternative for people who want to sell their cars privately.

"It will be fair if the council have another place where you can put your car and people could pay a donation to sell it," Mr Javurek said.

Grove Rd was not the ideal place because cars were sometimes vandalised, he said. Stones had been thrown at a Toyota Corolla he had parked there to sell.

But it was still better to have the cars in one place, like a community market, than people selling their cars on different streets.

He had sold three cars at the Grove Rd site.

Council assets and services committee chairman Graeme Taylor said he was against the idea of the council providing an area for free car sales because it was unfair competition for car dealers who paid commercial rent and rates.

The idea did not come up at the council, and he said it should not get involved because it was "not the right thing to do".

The council said last week it was giving sellers until the end of the weekend to move their cars from the strip of land so it could start work this week to seal it to create 25 carparks for the new i-Site in front of the railway station, which was due to open in July.

When The Marlborough Express visited the site yesterday afternoon, more than 20 cars remained for sale there. Five remained at 9am today.

Joe Syomin, from Blenheim, said the sales yard was good for poorer people because it was more affordable than going through a car dealer.

He had parked his car on the land on Friday to sell but would remove it after the warning from the council.

He needed to sell the car to buy a bigger one and would try other ways such as approaching friends if he could not park it somewhere in town with a for sale sign on it.

Mr Syomin, who has sold two cars at the unofficial lot, had been to a car dealer who offered him less money for one car and to pay him half straight away and the other half when it was sold.

"That same car sold for about $400 more than the dealer offered and you get all the money at once," he said.

SIMON WONG

Last updated 17:00 20/06/2011