Wellington hostel fire: Investigators, search and rescue to enter Loafers Lodge

Fire investigators and Urban Search and Rescue are expected to enter Loafers Lodge later this morning following a fatal fire that has left at least six people dead.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at the Wellington hostel in the early morning hours of Tuesday. Some residents jumped out of windows to safety and were rescued from the roof.

It was accommodation the Wellington City Mission described as one of the "worst buildings" in the city.

The damage to the building is so extensive that emergency service personnel have been unable to get in properly to survey the damage and potentially find more bodies.

FENZ assistant national commander and Wellington region manager Bruce Stubbs told Morning Report a fire crew had stayed overnight to deal with any reignition should it occur.

The cause of the fire was currently being treated as undetermined, he said. The possibility of it being suspicious had not been ruled out but until investigators could go in and work through evidence, nothing else could be said.

"We need to get our people in to do their work in determining the origin and cause of the fire," Stubbs said.

The investigation team as well as USAR will make a re-entry this morning alongside police to move to the next phase of the operation.

Police will then take over from about 10.30am as the leading agency, media were told at the scene.

"We'll go through the handover process with them later this morning. We outline all the hazards that are there, all the things we've done to mitigate those hazards and offer the support of our USAR team should we need to do anything going through that process."

Stubbs said there was a "fair amount of destruction and debris" on the top floor of the building. The next step is going through and ensuring no-one else is in there.

He could not confirm if a further 11 people remained unaccounted for, excluding the six bodies that had already been located.

Stubbs was also unable to confirm reports of another fire around 10.30pm on Monday. The team was currently going through the sequence of events leading up to the fire response, he said.

He said the crew working with a ladder to rescue people did a "fantastic job putting it up and getting to work really quickly", making some early rescues from the side of the building.

Another truck with a 32-metre ladder was unavailable as it had had some mechanical issues. He could not confirm if having that truck at the scene as well would have helped rescue more people.

A total of 20 crews from across Wellington responded, he said.

"With an event like this, we bring in all the people that the incident management team require and that can be from a long way out. We just continue to bring people in and crews to work through the operations that are going on at the time."

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said a priority for council was working with FENZ and police to conduct an investigation into Loafers Lodge which would open up a lot more information.

She confirmed that all residents displaced by the fire had found temporary accommodation as of 10pm on Tuesday and the emergency centre had been able to close.

Whanau told Morning Report this situation had highlighted the need to know if Wellington had other buildings of this nature where there could be a concern for safety so this did not happen again.

She said the council would work with central government on this to see if there were buildings that did met compliance requirements but could still be deemed unsafe.

"This one had too (met requirements) and we've obviously ended up in this situation," Whanau said.

"We will start a plan forward on how we manage that. It is a top priority for our council."

Many needs still to be sorted - City Missioner

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge said displaced residents were provided with temporary accommodation, clothing, food and cellphones last night.

"But there's a long-term challenge here and that challenge will take many days to unfold. Not only the practical needs of people including their housing, but the trauma that you could hear very clearly in their interviews (played on Morning Report) just now."

Edridge said the public had responded "extraordinarily" in this time of disaster and had donated $20,000 as of yesterday.

"Community agencies, government agencies, council, have all been playing a part and the public can as well by continuing to donate to the city mission website," Edridge told Morning Report.

"But these people are going to need our support. They're vulnerable … many of them have lost everything and of course, they've lost neighbours and friends as well."

He said the fire meant Wellington's already under pressure housing stock would get worse as these residents had nowhere permanent to go.

He described Loafers Lodge as one of the "worst buildings" in the city.

"You wouldn't live there if you had an viable alternatives."

He said it was important they were found accommodation - better than what they were living in previously - and many Wellington landlords had been checking their own buildings were not as vulnerable as Loafers Lodge appeared to be.

"There were certainly some issues coming out of this disaster that hopefully, and this may be one of the upsides of this situation, hopefully our building stock quality gets improved and people pay attention to the things around health and safety that are really important."

Edridge said many of the residents were under the care of the mission already, and they would be contacting them again today to start figuring out plans for them long-term.