Wellington Loafers Lodge fire: We shouldn’t wait for tragedy to address known risks - opinion
OPINION:
We shouldn’t have to wait for people to die before we update the very legislation that’s meant to keep us safe.
There were no sprinklers at Loafers Lodge where at least six people perished in a fire that’s now being treated as arson.
One of the most shocking things is that the lack of sprinklers was legal. The Building Code does not require them to be retrofitted, despite the property housing 112 people at maximum occupancy.
The situation reminded me of something RNZ journalist Guyon Espiner said when I asked him recently why he decided to investigate lobbying in New Zealand.
“Don’t worry about the illegal stuff,” he said referring to a phrase from the Washington press corps.
“Look at what’s legal, look at the things that we allow to happen within the law.”
In the aftermath of the fire, questions immediately rained down on the company that owns the building as to why there weren’t any sprinklers and whether it was compliant.
It turns out the lodge was issued with a Building Warrant of Fitness as recently as March this year. Loafers Lodge director Gregory Mein told me the property was also subject to a monthly inspection where its services were checked, including by fire technicians.
He said they employed the relevant people to make sure the building’s standards were robust.
The moral obligation to have sprinklers in a hostel where so many people are living is a different story.
The horrific deaths of those who perished in the fire have sparked calls to change the Building Act and strengthen regulations around fire protection for properties.
The thing is, this issue is nothing new. It has been hiding in plain sight and it has sadly taken a tragedy such as the Loafers Lodge fire to bring people’s attention to it.
The rules around sprinklers aren’t the only area of our building legislation I’m worried about.
When the Kaikōura earthquake struck in 2016, two floors of Statistics House partially collapsed.
The earthquake happened at midnight but had it landed at midday, the Statistics House damage could have been fatal.
In response, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment [MBIE] released proposed guidelines representing the latest information on precast concrete flooring.
There is no regulatory requirement for building owners who have already undertaken earthquake-prone building assessments to carry out a retrospective or additional assessment against the new guidelines.
This is despite these guidelines representing the latest engineering knowledge and as Engineering New Zealand has stated “it’s now clear that precast concrete flooring can perform poorly during an earthquake”.
It’s now 2023 and MBIE is “still considering the options for the Yellow Chapter”.
This is purely speculation, but sometimes I wonder whether this process would still be up in the air had the Kaikōura earthquake struck during the day when people were working in Statistics House.
But there are even recent examples outside of the building sector, too.
In January, the nation was reminded of the horror of the Wāhine disaster when Interisalander’s Kaitaki ferry lost power in Cook Strait, started drifting towards Wellington’s coast in a howling southerly, and issued a mayday call with 864 people on board.
The ferry narrowly avoided disaster when power was able to be restored.
But imagine if it hadn’t and people had to abandon ship and the vessel hit the rocks.
Now we are having a discussion about whether it’s acceptable that no ocean-going tugs are available in Wellington to help vessels if they get into trouble in open water - particularly Cook Strait, which is renowned for being treacherous.
I was shocked when I found out there is no emergency towing vessel on standby in New Zealand to help large ships in strife, while our most powerful tug based in Taranaki would take one day and 16 hours to get to a maritime incident in Auckland.
We keep hearing about how it’s difficult to make an ocean-going tug, or something similar, stack up financially.
Can you honestly imagine politicians or other authorities saying that if people had died on board the Kaitaki that day? I can’t.
Statistics House and the ferry mayday are both examples of close calls. Unfortunately, it’s too late for the people who died in Loafers Lodge.
People shouldn’t have to lose their lives for us to treat known risks with the urgency they deserve.