Fire alarms subject to "malicious" tampering, smoke stop doors missing and "trickling" hoses for fighting fires.

These are some of what fire inspections and investigations have been finding at government-subsidised emergency housing providers in the Bay of Plenty.

After one caught fire, firefighters faced off against aggressive dogs.

The risks are compounded by a whole layer of fire safety inspections that have been missing in the Bay for months.

FENZ risk reduction inspectors stopped checking fire alarms and evacuation schemes last July after some assaults on other officials at motels. Their union said FENZ needed to set up proper safety-at-work training, PPE and procedures before they would restart.

The high-risk examples in Rotorua and Taupō came to light during RNZ inquiries, spurred by the fatal Loafers Lodge fire in May, into the safety risks at housing for vulnerable people.

At an emergency housing motel in Taupō that fire ripped through last year, a smoke stop door and smoke alarms were missing. Firefighters said it was "pure luck" someone was not badly hurt or killed at Berkenhoff Lodge in the midnight blaze last November.

Three months later, surprise inspections at three other emergency housing providers in Taupō found missing or dodgy smoke stop doors, fire alarms and evacuation signs.

Earlier this month, a FENZ manager in Bay of Plenty said in an email: "It was only a matter of time until someone died in a fire at one of these providers."

Lack of power

This followed an earlier investigation at a Rotorua emergency housing motel that concluded death or injury was "likely" if it caught fire.

The fire alarms had been tampered with half a dozen times at the Four Canoes Hotel, a FENZ report said.

Government agencies had been housing high-risk, high-needs people there for months. For residents like this, the hotel should have had sprinklers and better alarms, FENZ said.

But while FENZ and councils could demand that existing alarms and evacuation schemes are up to scratch, they had few powers to demand any upgrades; in some cases, they could not even require a motel to install a basic smoke alarm in each room.

Official documents said the government had become increasingly reliant on emergency housing since 2016, but had been legally powerless to set safety standards; and so councils' hands, too, have been tied, other than relying on generic building regulations.

Evacuation questions

The explosion of emergency housing in Bay of Plenty introduced new stresses to councils, ministries and fire inspectors.

Though official figures put the number of providers there at 30 and dropping, FENZ inspection lists number more than 100. The quality varies hugely.

The reports show that even when inspectors identify fire risks, they are not always dealt with. FENZ had been asking for months for Four Canoes to make "urgent" changes to its evacuation scheme, they showed.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development knew about this, but took the hotel's word it had "strategies" in place, a FENZ letter last December said.

"It is of concern that these 'strategies' have not been discussed or provided to FENZ, as FENZ must approve any changes to their evacuation scheme," the senior risk advisor wrote.
A burned-out corridor in Berkenhoff Lodge, Taupō, where fire investigators found multiple safety breaches. Photo: FENZ

FENZ was called in last July after the district council expressed fears for residents' safety.

It found people often smoked in their rooms, questioned the fire protections and concluded "there is still a serious risk that occupants ... may be overcome by smoke resulting in injury or death".

Everything up to scratch - hotel

The major hotel chain that owns Four Canoes, CPG, said it had put in place all the fire protections required of it.

"Whatever [the Ministry of Housing] has asked for, we gave them," said group operations manager Ronnie Ronalde.

The hotel was always compliant, he argued. This is despite the FENZ investigation that said it was not compliant, leading to the council putting a 'dangerous building' notice on it in mid-2022.

Ronalde said this was lifted in December after CPG put in extra smoke detectors.

They had always had regular security checks, and the evacuation scheme had always been adequate for the hotel operation, he said.

He blamed Lakes District Council for unnecessary interventions based on the mistaken notion the hotel had undergone a "change of use" when it had not.

"They took one perspective ... and made my life hell."

Ronalde oversaw 30 hotels, but this one had been an "absolute headache".

Only four emergency housing tenants - and not high-needs ones - were still at the hotel, and no other guests; once it was empty, they would rebrand it and reopen it as a tourist hotel, Ronalde said.

A second CPG operation, the Lake Rotorua Hotel, was still used for emergency housing, for families, he added.

Taupō inspections

In Taupō, council-initiated checks on three emergency housing motels in February found "numerous flammable items stored in the hallway", "inadequate fire separation in the laundry between ground and first floor", "no evacuation notices displayed" and most smoke stop doors did not close properly at one of them.

At the two others, they found problems with smoke alarms and evacuation notices.

Taupō District Council told RNZ there were only five emergency housing providers in town. Four of them have a current Building Warrant of Fitness, gained after passing checks including on fire safety systems.

The one without had an on-site inspection last week and was awaiting confirmation it passed. Back in February, where non-compliances were found, the building owners were followed up on.

At Berkenhoff Lodge, a first-floor room was thought by a FENZ investigator to have been set alight deliberately while people were asleep on 16 November last year.

A smoke stop door was missing completely in a hallway that led to bedrooms.

Two residents woke up and ran to get the fire hoses.

"I couldn't tell what was burning, it was pitch black. I could just see the flames; they were only about knee height," said one, who had lived there for two years.

"I turned the hose on and there was no water, it was only trickling out the end."

Such long-term accommodation relies on government special needs grants. The average length of stay nationwide at present is about 20 weeks.

The alarms at the lodge went off. It had heat detectors, manual fire alarm call points and smoke alarms in the hallway, but some rooms had empty smoke alarm base plates fixed to them, the investigation found.

Another resident said: "The flames just completely took over. An occupant tried to fight the fire with the hose but there was hardly any water pressure. I went around a few other rooms helping get people and dogs out of the building".

The aggressive dogs, and aggressive occupants confronted firefighters when they got there.

Firefighters told RNZ they sometimes felt intimidated or physically exposed when they were called to a fire or medical emergency. The Professional Firefighters' Union said the type of programme US brigades undertake - ASHER, or Active Shooter Hostile Environment Response - was needed here.

The Berkenhoff Lodge showed up online as permanently closed. RNZ was unable to contact the operators.

Phil Pennington/RNZ