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The Seddonville Hotel. Photo: Facebook / Seddonville hotel limited
Locals used beer to help put out a fire at the Seddonville Hotel last night.
Seddonville volunteer firefighter Ian Mulholland was heading home from work in Westport at about 6.15pm when he saw flames.
"I rounded the corner and noticed the pub was on fire... it was well ablaze."
He checked people weren't in the building and called 111.
"I told them I was going to the station to get the fire engine and to get Granity on the way as well."
Mulholland estimated it took less than 10 minutes to get to the station, start the vehicles and get back to site with two trucks and another firefighter.
By the time the firefighters arrived back on site, the fire was almost out thanks to quick thinking from locals.
"Our industrious locals actually got bottles of beer... actually opening bottles of beer, shaking them, and putting the fire out."
Granity, Waimangaroa, and Westport brigades also attended the blaze. Before they arrived, Seddonville firefighters doused the hot spots.
Most firefighters were on site for about 90 minutes and one truck was on site until about 9.30pm.
Mulholland returned overnight and this morning to check hot spots stayed out.
He was unsure where or how the fire started, but said it was under investigation today.
He was thankful no one was injured and he saw it when he did.
"Another five minutes and it would have been a totally different story...
"I just travelled home at 80km/h last night, did a wee job on the way home.
It was the difference of a couple of minutes, but I just wasn't in a hurry last night."
Dean White, who manages the Seddonville Hotel, told Checkpoint the fire started after a gas fault.
He said they used about half a dozen crates of beer to douse the fire in the corner.
"But the poor bugger that was grabbing them from the chiller, I didn't like the look on his face, he was a bit sad every time he passed a full beer out, he wasn't too happy but we got the result we needed."
If they had not done it, they would have lost the pub, he said.
"It's easier to just get in there and do the hard yards and what you have to do because she would have been gone otherwise... Sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do, but it worked. It saved the day so that's all that matters."
White said he was having a beer on Tuesday evening.
"It's not quite as tasty with the chillers being off for the best part of 22 hours, but when that's all you've got, that's all you've got."
In a social media post last night, the owner thanked the community for helping avoid what could have been a disastrous fire.
"We will be back open again as soon as we are able, with cold beer," the post said.
- This story is republished from the Westport News
