1. Those poor people trapped in that fire…terrible way to go

2. Possibly the egress, and paucity of fire escapes, boarded-up or not, may have made this ugly, formerly commercial bank premises just occupied during business hours, into a living or dying nightmare for the night dwellers to whom it became a place to call home, IMO. RIP, the dead.

3. who signed off on that building? did it meet residential regs? sack ’em and withdraw pension….until council functionaries have real actual consiquences this bullshit will continue and people WILL die

   oh and if anyone mentions ‘thoughts and prayers’ I shall throw up.

   • I’ve been throwing up all day listening and watching the platitudes from politicians and ‘officials’ alike.

     Just now on 1News (your news with our Max Headroom) who asked the mayor how many other buildings there were like this. That question went unanswered.
     And just prior to that, Max did a ‘cross’ to a Jane-on-the-spot who was probably not more than 100 metres away.
     Something must be done (in the fullness of time, in this space, going forward). And then, the Chipster wouldn’t actually commit to any change until the outcome of an inquiry (Terms of Ref yet to be known) when it’s bleeding bloody obvious changes need to be made.

4. NewsGuard is going to rate the reliability of our media
   https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018883019/offshore-outfit-rating-the-reliability-of-our-media

   Here is a little about them.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W77DNErzMdw

5. no sprinklers in a residential block of this size……welcome to the 3rd worlds

   • That’EXACTLY what it is @ gargarin. I could show you social services apartments in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere in that 3rd World that are in better nik and safer than Loafers Lodge, and with occupants that actually look after one another.
     And those places are where corruption runs rife. But at least its overt where people know where they stand.

     First commandment of the fundy religion that is neo-liberalism – cult, if you like:
     Thou shalt not criticise thy officials, nor shalt thou critique them, for they know what they do.

   • But wasn’t it enough for you, Gagarin, that the Wellington mayor mentioned the diversity of Newtown, in her sad in situ interview, not that she lives in Newtown herself? Diversity, that’s the crux, gagarin.

     Is the painting of rainbow pedestrian crossings, and the promulgating of Wellington as a te Reo city, not more important than elderly persons in their 80’s and 90’s living in a bleak commercial death trap, euphemistically named a hostel? Is it ok to board up fire escapes used for illegal entry by persons living grim-street lives themselves?

     Once upon a time, the rich, now late, Loafer’s owner, had a car sales yard on the Basin Reserve, featuring humorous billboards. One billboard read,” Paraplegics Stand Up For Your Lives.” I told him I thought it offensive but he said that other people thought it was funny. Ever had wheelchair bound friends or whanau, who find accessing a public building an Aorangi Mt Cook?

     No night porter or concierge in a 92 bedroomed dwelling place with no sprinklers and extremely diverse occupants, does not transgress Aotearoa New Zealand’s crappy building code, and would eat into the substantial profits, laddie. That’s the way it is under neoliberalism, but the water trickles down, if nothing much else does. Ever read your countryman, Charles Dickens? He’d be cancelled in today’s New Zealand; that’s the way it is.

     • “No night porter or concierge in a 92 bedroomed dwelling ………..”
       Yep, that’s what I find unbelievable. Offices and commercial property has things like fire wardens and evacuation procedures. Sometimes in places like Pik a Parrot (Coromandel Street) ?, residents take it upon themselves.
       This stingy owner – direct from the Pat Rippin School of Property Ownership and Management couldn’t see his way clear to ensure a building of 92 rooms had a proper full time building manager.
       Even the shithole a couple of hundred metres from me has one. Probably needs two, because it’s also a tinder box with a variety of people with various addictions and mental health issues.
       And while the Council seem to be able to get around yellow and red stickering buildings, they don’t seem to know how many buildings are not even fit for a pig to writhe around in

       • Come on, OnceWasTim, this is the shabby little country which has abolished its Commissioner for Children, and done so unashamedly. If they care so little about little kids then you’re being unrealistic expecting them to be concerned about other vulnerable persons.

6. ‘Transient’ people living in hostel accommodation in a post-roger now seymour soaked neoliberal logical fallacy get roasted while nine multi-billionaires and four foreign operated banks taking nearly $200.00 dollars a second in net profits annually out of agrarian AO/NZ and ACT still gets a cult-like following. I see. Oh look ! A star spangled flying Unicorn’s shitting out diamonds, cocaine and lettuce leaves! Organic though!

7. Wondered why so many politicians all over this?
   Loafers Lodge has been used for emergency social housing at least until 2021: https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/official-information-responses/2021/april/20210420-request-a-list-of-all-the-current-places-used-by-msd-for-emergency-housing-in-wellington-cbd.pdf

   Is this tragedy another symptom of bundling the poor in to cheap hotels?

8. Well done James Shaw, focusing on this country’s disgraceful building code, which enables horrific tragedies such as this to occur. We have no control over earthquake or rainfall events, but this fire is a catastrophe which was preventable, and it should not have happened in the first place.

   Internal Affairs Minster Barbara Edmonds talked away about talking wth the PM and colleagues throughout the day, mainly, it seems, about the state of the fire service and the commendable bravery of the firefighters, and predictability, about the diversity of Newtown. PM Hipkins and the
   Wellington mayor did exactly the same thing and heaven knows why the diversity of Newtown is part of the equation, except that ‘diversity’ is yet another PC buzzword for dim politicians trying to look inclusive to the plebs. That’s us. The voters.

   The state of the fire service and the diversity of Newtown did not cause the terrible fire.

   This particular focus seems to be the party line to divert attention from the reality of what’s just gone down on Adelaide Rd. It is not good enough for me, and should not be good enough for anybody else. Shaw is right to be angry, and to be saying that it should never have happened, rather than waffling on like all the other effete politicians. Lives were lost, every shocked survivor may have lost everything they owned, and pollies switch into self-protective public relations mode per usual.

Comments are closed.