Firefighters battle a blaze on Wellington's Tory Street. Photo: Supplied / Hiro Teraoka
The owner of a central Wellington dry cleaning service and sauna says his business is "exceptionally lucky" after a fire on Monday night.
Seven fire trucks were called on the two-storey building on Monday evening which houses Mall Drycleaning and Tory Urban Retreat, a wellness centre which includes a sauna.
The fire started at the bottom of the two-level concrete building at around 9pm and was extinguished about two hours later.
Fire and Emergency told RNZ it was caused by a malfunctioning piece of equipment.
Firefighters battle a blaze on Wellington's Tory Street. Photo: Supplied / Hiro Teraoka
Mike Burdett, who was the owner of both businesses in the building, said he had never experienced something like this in the 35 years he had run his business.
Burdett said there were people in the sauna at the time of the blaze, who were all safely evacuated.
"The fire alarms went off, and the fire brigade was here pretty quickly."
He said that the damage mostly was caused by smoke from the fire.
"We are just now rebuilding quickly, so we have got teams on there at the moment, so we have got builders putting back fire sensors, we have plumbers, we have electricians."
The aftermath of the fire was not expected to cost his business much as Burdett was insured, and he expected the clean-up to be done in a few weeks' time.
He said it was extremely lucky the fire brigade was there.
"They just handled it amazingly and saved us."
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