Crash leads to fire at salon

A car which ploughed into a power pole caused live wires to set fire to the roof of a Mount Maunganui business.

The Lynx Hair Direction salon on Farm St, behind Bayfair Shopping Centre, is temporarily closed after Saturday night's fire.

Emergency services were called to the area in response to a car accident just before 11pm.

A white Mazda station wagon had smashed head-on into a power pole.

As a result, the concrete power pole had fallen over and live wires were resting on the roof of the hair salon.

With power still running through the wires, a fire soon broke out.

"The power pole was leaning right down into the building," co-owner Richard Rimer said.

"It was arcing and there were sparks coming from the lines and that's what's started the fire."

Mr Rimer and his wife Penny, who own the hairdressing salon, were phoned by police shortly after the accident.

They arrived at the scene to find firefighters ripping pieces of tin off the roof to access the fire.

"They had to break the ceiling down to put out the fire," Mrs Rimer said.

Fire Brigade north communications shift manager Jaron Phillips said crews were initially called to attend the car accident.

When they arrived at the scene, smoke was coming from the roof of the salon, he said.

"[The crew] got very involved immediately. There were 400-volt lines still live on the building. Then a fire developed in the roof of the building."

The fire crew, from Mount Maunganui, gained access to the building and ripped open the internal ceiling so they could access the roof cavity. Other members of the fire crew were spraying water on to the roof from the footpath.

It took the fire brigade more than an hour to access and extinguish the fire, Mr Phillips said.

The damaged vehicle was removed just before 1am.

Around the same time, power contractors removed the broken power pole and replaced it.

Yesterday, at the salon, Mr and Mrs Rimer spent the day assessing the damage and cleaning up the water that had pooled on the salon floor. An electrician was on site to reconnect the power.

Mrs Rimer thanked the firefighters for their fast response and quick actions.

"We are very grateful for their help. They could have done a lot more damage than what was done and they were very conscious not to make a bigger mess for us. We're very lucky to have a thoughtful and lovely landlord too."

Police were not able to comment on what caused the car driver to crash.

The hairdressing salon is insured and is expected to reopen in the next few days.