The scene of a fire at The Loafers Lodge hostel in Wellington, May 2023. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The trial of a man charged with murdering five people by setting fire to Wellington's Loafers Lodge hostel starts on Monday.
The man, who has name suppression, pleaded not guilty to murder and arson following the blaze at the Newtown boarding house more than two years ago.
When his pleas were entered, his lawyer Louise Sziranyi told the court he would use the defence of insanity during the trial.
The fire began shortly after midnight on 16 May, 2023, killing Michael Wahrlich, Melvin Parun, Peter O'Sullivan, Kenneth Barnard and Liam Hockings.
More than 50 people were living there at the time of the fire.
In June, four people were charged with manslaughter in relation to the fire, with the police saying they had responsibility for aspects of the building's management, operation, and fire safety systems.
The charges followed a two-year investigation by police into the state of the building.
Murray Edridge, from Wellington City Mission, earlier told RNZ he remained in contact with a number of former residents of the lodge, and that some were still traumatised.
"It feels like it's an unconcluded process and people are still in pain."
The gutted three-storey building stands virtually unchanged on Adelaide Road and its future remains unclear.
Edridge said it was a constant reminder of the pain former residents went through.
The fire triggered a series of inquiries into fire protections.
A Wellington City Council audit in June 2023 found most of the capital's 25 buildings similar to Loafers Lodge had current building warrants of fitness, but four did not. Those buildings were now compliant, the council said.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) also launched a probe into 37 buildings like Loafers Lodge (buildings that were at least three storeys tall, a boarding house and had no sprinklers).
It found more than 100 problems, including smoke detectors not working and unmonitored alarm systems. All the problems were resolved by October last year, MBIE said.
The government also asked MBIE to do a full review of the building code's fire safety provisions. The public submissions were released earlier this month.
Among the 112 submissions, the highest priority was making fire regulations clearer, and cutting out gaps and inconsistencies.
The biggest concern was "inconsistent treatment of risk, in particular with regard to sleeping occupancies", a submitter said.
MBIE would feed the submissions into its proposals for Cabinet to consider changing the Building Code early next year.
At the end of last year, Fire and Emergency (FENZ) said it was unable to release a review into how it responded to the fatal fire while a criminal investigation was underway.
FENZ regional manager Bruce Stubbs said the organisation would continue to support police with the ongoing court case.
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