Water supply to site of Shelly Bay fire was cut by construction work

Jun 14, 2023

There were sprinklers in the Shelly Bay building which was destroyed by fire this week, but the water supply was disconnected due to damage from heavy machinery.

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the water supply to the general area was cut off "a couple of months ago", when heavy machinery from the nearby development damaged an underground supply pipe.

The jagged-roofed Shed 8 building was an iconic part of Shelly Bay and its destruction has left both the site's developers and their opponents shocked.

Police are treating the fire as suspicious, because the building was unoccupied and not connected to electricity, ruling out other causes.

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The city council is keeping the public 300 metres away from the site of the fire, because of the asbestos risk. An exclusion zone was established on Friday night and there are fences at either end of Shelly Bay Rd to keep people and cars away.

The fire is still hot, MacLean said, and a blaze had to be extinguished by Fire and Emergency NZ last night.

An initial scene examination was completed on Thursday, but the police investigation will not continue on the site until late next week. In the meantime the council is responsible for clearing rubble and debris from the site and making it safe.

There are unlikely to be further updates from police until they re-enter the site late next week.

MacLean said the council had organised specialist demolition contractors the clean-up job and that it would take some time to move heavy machinery to the site.

The road will be closed until the clean-up is complete, with confirmation of the timeline from the contractors expected early next week.

The burnt-out building was part of the planned site of the $500 million housing development, a collaboration between The Wellington Company and Taranaki Whānui.

It was a historic building which was originally meant to be preserved in the development, until the council found it was too structurally unsound and issued a demolition order late last year.

Parts of the nearby wharves had been falling into the sea, and it was thought the Shed 8 building could be at risk of collapsing too, as its foundations had washed away.