Newspaper Article 2001 – Ex-nurses home offers beds for boarders

Ex-nurses home offers beds for boarders

Sacred Heart fire

Mandy Kaye

The managers of a former nurses home at Napier hospital have offered to help house the Sacred Heart College boarders whose hostel was badly damaged in a fire on Saturday.

Jan Woodhall and Bruce Raitt, of Hinepare Accommodation, offered their assistance the night of the fire.

“It’s just horrific,” Jan Woodhall said of the devastating fire that also destroyed the school’s chapel and convent.

“We rang them straight away and then sent a letter.

“Like everybody else in the community, we’re keen to help.”

Heather Moller, principal of nearby Hukarere School, said the school had sent flowers and a letter also offering their assistance.

Hukarere was keen to help out in any way it could and was open to the suggestion of helping accommodate the boarders, Mrs Moller said.

Sacred Heart College principal Cora Kamp said she expected to have found alternative accommodation for the 60 boarders in time for the start of term three.

Two possibilities were being investigated, but Ms Kamp did not want to reveal more.

She said she was keen to keep all the boarders together.

Another priority was to make the devastated site safe.

That included the demolition of the burnt-out buildings which Ms Kamp hoped would be finished before school started.

It was first necessary to get the go-ahead from the insurance assessor who started work at the school on Monday.

The school’s architect, David McKenzie, of Design Concepts in Wanganui, was to visit the school yesterday to make plans for the new hostel.

Rebuilding of the hostel was expected to be completed within six months.

Lessons would continue as normal next term.

About 40 Napier Hill households could have mail missing because Sacred Heart College’s chapel was a regular drop-off point.

Adrian Lunn, Hawke’s Bay mail services centre manager for New Zealand Post, said “a couple of small bundles” of mail had been delivered to the school chapel before midday fire. All the residents affected, about 40 households in Cobden Lane, crescent and road, had been dealt with directly and received a letter on Monday outlining the situation.

“Unfortunately we’re unable to tell what those articles were and how many were going to each customer,” he said.

The chapel had been a regular drop-off point for New Zealand Post for the past 20 years.

Sprinklers not compulsory

Existing school buildings are not required by the Ministry of Education to have sprinkler systems.

However, Alan Dibley, speaking on behalf of Marilyn Scott, the East Coast regional manager for the ministry, said if a new school was to be built then ministry policy was to install a sprinkler system if it was a practical option.

Schools that were being upgraded or remodelled were assessed on a case-by-case basis, he said.

“One of the key factors which we need to take into account when a building is upgraded is to ensure means of escapes are in place and that the structure has an appropriate level of protection to ensure the safe and timely exit of occupants.”

Most schools had an intruder-detector system, which picked up both heat and movement, Mr Dibley said. That was connected to a monitoring service which then determined which emergency services would be needed.

The need to install sprinklers in school boarding hostels was dependant [dependent] on the Building Act.