September 10, 2008

Invercargill fire safety officer Mike Cahill and Alexandra senior crime officer Dave George investigating the cause of a suspicious fire in Alexandra's old boxing club.
Alexandra police are investigating a suspected arson attack on an historic building in the town on Monday night.
The old boxing clubhouse in McDonald St was torched at 11pm on Monday.
Alexandra fire chief Russell Anderson said the building was well ablaze by the time firefighters got there.
It took half an hour to get the flames under control and more than an hour to dampen the building.
'It is one of the earlier buildings in the district but the fire caused quite a bit of damage,' he said.
The roof was now unstable.
Detective Sergeant Derek Shaw, of Alexandra CIB, said there was no obvious cause for the fire. There had been no occupants or power supply to the building for years.
The fire started in a small office in the front of the stone building.
'We are treating it as arson. We are currently examining the scene with the assistance of fire safety and once that is completed today the building will be turned over to the owner.' He appealed to the public for information or sightings of suspicious behaviour around the area on Monday night.
The owner, Mervyn Miller, bought the building in 1991.
'It was always a very dangerous building. My only plan was to keep the kids out of it,' he said.
The building was in bad shape with 'rock falling off everywhere' .
The building had not been used by the boxing club for six years and had been condemned for five years.
'I want to knock it over now. It's dangerous and should be cleared off the site,' he said.
He would have to apply to the Central Otago District Council for permission to raze it.
The building was not listed by the Historic Places Trust but was in the Central Otago District Plan as a heritage building. Council planning team leader Ann Rodgers said Mr Miller would need a structural engineer's report on the state of the building.
Depending on what an engineer recommended, he would then need a resource consent to alter or remove the building.
'We are working with the owner and the Historic Places Trust to work out what's best for the building,' she said.
The council had requested Mr Miller board up the building, and closed the road because of safety concerns, she said.
Historic Places Trust Otago area manager Owen Graham said records showed it was built in the 1860s and might have been the original Alexandra school.
'It is believed to be one of the last examples of buildings from that era in Alexandra.' It was important for the town not to lose the building, he said.
The trust would contact the owner to see how the building could be saved.