SkyCity Convention Centre fire costly for subbies and hire companies

Friday, 22 November 2019

Video footage shows flooding inside the SkyCity Convention Centre after the fire.

The SkyCity Convention Centre fire could prove costly for subcontractors faced with replacing damaged gear.

Fletcher Construction said it was allowing sub-contractors access to some levels of the NZ International Convention Centre (NZICC) site to enable them to remove their personal belongings.

'This is a complex process being undertaken by structural and environmental safety experts. At this stage we are not able to give a date by which all sub-contractor materials will be retrieved from the building.'

Labour hire company Turbo Staff estimates it has spent about $25,000 re-equipping workers with the basics after they were forced to abandon their tools when they were evacuated during the fire a month ago.

Equipment marooned in the fire damaged SkyCity Convention Centre.

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Firefighters inspect exterior damage to the NZ International Convention Centre. Contractors with equipment left inside the building during the evacuation are slowly being allowed back inside to recover their gear.

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The full extent of the smoke, heat and water damage caused by last month's fire at the SkyCity convention centre has not yet been revealed to contractors.

* SkyCity to seek damages from Fletcher Building for delayed delivery of convention centre**

Managing director Ihaka Rongonui said they had not yet replaced the expensive items such as laser levels which were $3000 to $5000 each and Fletcher had indicated they would be able to collect tools over the next two days.

In the weeks before the fire broke out he said the Fletcher subsidiary managing the SkyCity site had asked all subcontractors whether their tools were insured, but his were not owing to the high premiums insurers charged for hand tools because they were so often stolen.

'Given that they raised the point with us before the event I feel as though I am in a bit of a stalemate in the argument around asking for financial support. We will likely just take the hit and write it off as an act of god event.'

Hirepool has about 400 pieces of equipment ranging from hand tools to about 100 larger items such as scissor lifts which were widely used instead of step ladders during interior work on the centre.

Chief executive Brian Stephenson said Fletcher was allowing his staff to retrieve a company ute left in the lower level of the car park, and he was hoping to get inside soon to check out equipment affected by the blaze and the vast quantities of water used to fight it.

'From the photos we have seen the gear doesn't look too bad. Most of our gear was below the level of where the fire was, but there may be some water damage because a lot of [the lifts] have electrics.'

EWP Technical repairs and maintains scissor lifts and general manager Zander Newby said some of the hundreds of machines in the NZICC at the time of the fire may have to be written off.

'If it's just smoke and water damage, they would be worth repairing for sure, but the big booms, if they've had things falling on them, they could have been bent. Until we can inspect each one, it's hard to know.

'The control boxes and things like that are designed for outdoor showers and light rain, nothing torrential.'

High temperatures could have melted hydraulic hoses and electrical wiring, he said and new scissor lifts ranged in price from $15,000 to $100,000.

A Fletcher spokesperson said the company had liaised regularly with subcontractors since the fire, and all tools and belongings have been removed from the adjacent Horizon Hotel site.

All subcontractors had been paid for work done up until the day of the fire and some had been redeployed to other projects while planning for the rebuild continued.