The house in Phillips St was well alight when firefighters arrived. Photo: Supplied / Dean Smith
Homeless people are being interviewed by police amid fears squatters may have been trapped in a derelict Dunedin boarding house engulfed in flames on Friday.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) said yesterday people were still unaccounted for after the fierce blaze ripped through the Phillips St property, which was being demolished after Christopher Paul Bonisch, 51, was killed in a fire in the building last year.
It has emerged that WorkSafe last month issued a prohibition notice on the property, forcing workers to halt demolition over safety concerns.
The Otago Daily Times saw police talking to known homeless people at nearby Kensington Oval in their efforts to determine whether anyone was in the building at the time of the fire.
Neighbours and homeless people across Dunedin said two or three homeless people slept in the derelict house periodically.
Fenz incident controller senior station officer Pete Douglas said yesterday afternoon there were still people unaccounted for who may have been at the property at the time of the fire.
"We are now currently working with fire investigators and police because we still have an unknown number not accounted for."
The blaze was well underway with large flames shooting from the structure when Fenz arrived, SSO Douglas said.
The fire, which was visible across large parts of the city, spread to two neighbouring properties.
One had only minor exterior damage but the other was extensively damaged outside, with some lesser damage inside.
The occupants of those houses had been evacuated safely.
Fire investigators were investigating the cause of the fire, but it was still "too early to say", SSO Douglas said yesterday.
Firefighters rake through the remnants of the former boarding house in Phillips St. Photo: ODT / Stephen Jacquiery
Neighbour Lance Dyke said he called emergency services early yesterday after hearing a big "bang".
"I thought that didn't sound right so I went and looked out the front window and you could just see the smoke starting to come up through the walls of the building.
"So, I rung the fire brigade and next thing, 'boof' - away it went," Dyke said.
The heat of the inferno caused windows of his home to crack and paint to blister.
The entire back of the burning building looked like a wall of fire, he said.
"It was scary when all you could see was a wall of flames. You couldn't see the house at all."
The building was being demolished by owner Brent Mathews after it had been gutted by the previous fire in April last year.
Dyke said a month and a half ago, he talked to a WorkSafe representative who was assessing work on demolishing the former boarding house.
"Apparently demolition of the place got shut down because they weren't doing it safely."
He had seen rough sleepers coming to the house and had seen two people coming in quite regularly.
A WorkSafe spokesman said an assessment visit was completed at the property on 1 September following concerns raised with it about unsafe work at height and demolition of the property.
"A prohibition notice was issued on September 4 for the business involved to stop its unsafe work at height, and determine the presence of asbestos.
"To date the business has not provided WorkSafe with information on how the work would have been completed safely, and the notice is still in place."
Mathews declined to comment yesterday.
The house at the height of the blaze. Photo: Supplied / Dean Smith
Fenz Otago Assistant Commander Rob Torrance said the builders who had been renovating the property had told him up to five homeless people were known to sleep there.
A neighbouring boarding house was also damaged in the blaze.
A resident of the boarding house described being woken about 7am and told there was a fire.
"Someone saw the fire from the street and came and banged on the doors and knocked on my window.
"I woke up and had no idea what was going on. I was just lucky I had something on. One lady came out with no shirt, and it was freezing."
The residents of the boarding house were left wondering where they would live.
"I have no idea where to go for a couple of days. I haven't got anything sussed out.
"I think maybe the landlord is sussing some people out, but I haven't talked to them at all."
A Dunedin rental agent who managed tenancies in the boarding house was known to be working yesterday to rehouse people displaced by the fire.
This story first appeared in the Otago Daily Times.