Fire and Emergency New Zealand handed back the Victoria Park New World shopping centre to its owners on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after the fire started. 

Firefighters and aerial support were dispatched to subdue the fire after it broke out on the building’s mezzanine floor, which was part of an area under reconstruction. 

“At the height of the fire, there were 23 trucks and 80 firefighters, as well as support personnel,” said incident controller Phil Larcombe.

“It’s a very important location to us, we don’t really know what the plan to get back to trading will be yet,” said Foodstuffs’ CEO and MD Chris Quin told The New Zealand Herald. 

“The staff will absolutely be looked after. That’s one of the great things about being part of a cooperative, we’ve got so many options for how we do that,” said Quin. 

Quin stated the team is currently focused on ensuring safety and thanking the staff for their support with evacuation procedures and will determine next steps once the company has more clarity on the situation.

“Right now, we will continue to pay the staff and make sure they’re OK,” said Quin.

“As we get clarity around time frames and what we’re dealing with, we’ll start to make a plan for each and every one of them. 

“We’ve done that before with floods and other events, and we will be able to do that really, really well,” he said. 

All persons inside the store when the blaze began have been accounted for. Investigators have so far been unable to determine the cause of the fire.