Jurors gasped as footage was today played in court of a Loafers Lodge resident jumping from his third storey window to escape the fire consuming the hostel.
Faamatala Sili said he was panicking, afraid and thinking about God as he got ready push himself out and towards the roof of the neighbouring building.
“I had no choice but to do it, to jump, because if I didn’t I was probably gonna die that night but I didn’t really want to do it,” he explained.
“When I was looking down at the height I was terrified.”
“It was either burn inside my room or just jump.”
As he landed, there was a loud thud.
“I slammed on the roof and then I rolled down onto the flat part at the bottom of the sweeping roof and I tried to stand up but my legs I think they were the first to slam on the roof, they were like shaking uncontrollably.”
He noticed his right leg was cut, and said he had a “terrible time trying to stand”.
“So I just crawled along the bottom part to the back and and waited for someone to notice me so I could call for help,” he recalled.
‘We gonna be OK?’
On a 111 call from the roof of his home, one of the survivors of the Loafers Lodge fire anxiously asked emergency services if he was “gonna be OK”.
The recording was played at the High Court in Wellington, as the trial for the man charged with murder and arson in relation to the deadly blaze continues.
The 50-year-old accused, who has name suppression, faces seven charges in relation to the incident on May 16, 2023.
He has pursued a defence of insanity.
Glen Cross was living on level four in the Newtown hostel building and, this morning, recounted his escape from the fire through thick smoke.
He said he didn’t know what woke him after midnight, that night, but said he felt something was wrong.
“I heard someone, which sounded like they were outside the building, yelling, ‘fire, fire’.
“I went from being sort of half asleep to being wide awake,” he said.
After getting dressed as quickly as he could, he opened his front door to leave.
It was then, he was confronted by what he described as a “wall of smoke”.
“Smoke had piled into the hallway and it was from the roof to the floor. It was black,” Cross told the court.
He dropped to the ground and crawled, quickly realising he couldn’t go down the stairs of the building due to the conditions. Instead, he headed to the roof.
Cross was one of three residents who went to the roof and, once there, he called 111.
On the recording he was heard telling the call-taker they were OK, but had inhaled a lot of smoke.
‘Just tried to keep calm’
The 50-year-old accused is facing seven charges in relation to the fatal Loafers Lodge fire two years ago. (Source: 1News)
“At some point, while we were up there, you could see orange through the thick smoke,” he recounted.
He said those on the roof were “worried it was going to just all go up”.
“We started to notice that there were actually flames, not just thick smoke.”
He recalled the three, “just tried to keep calm”.
“We tried to breathe through our t-shirts by putting them up over our faces, crouching down, just far away from where it was coming over.”‘
Cross couldn’t remember how long they waited but said, at some point, a firefighter arrived up the stairs he’d come from, and a crane bucket appeared over the side of the building.
“Three of us got in the bucket with one fireman. He operated it and went back over the side and back down to the ground.”
He recalled the relief he felt to be safe, but he also felt a numbness.
“It was surreal, didn’t feel… like it was really happening,” he said.
He eventually got into a position where he could see just how bad the fire was, describing the sound of cracking wood and glass.
‘Top floor unsurvivable’
The ongoing emotional toll on firefighters has been clear from evidence presented in court.
Today, Fire and Emergency NZ Station officer Brendon Wood broke down before he could begin reading his evidence, quickly covering his face with his notes.
Justice Churchman, who’s presiding over the trial, began to call for a break, but Wood then gave a thumbs up, saying, “I’ll be okay, I’m ready to go”.
The firefighter of 37 years told the court he was the officer put in charge of search and rescue that night, detailing how he worked to clear the building on the floors they could access.
“It was obvious that the top floor was unsurvivable, so the interior tactics transitioned to a coordinated primary search of levels two, one, and the ground in that priority order.”
A primary search took about 30 minutes and a secondary, more intensive, search took around two hours. “This requires checking each room and breaking into rooms as the search is of every available occupiable space,” he said.
“I was comfortable that the available floors had been cleared and that no one was still inside the building,” he later added.
He was asked about a woman, who he later saw exiting the building, which surprised him.
As he testified, he struggled to speak at times, with the Crown Prosecutor sometimes finishing his sentences.
“Fatalities were starting to be reported back, which was disheartening,” he said, before choking up again and signalling he wanted to take a break.
George Mihailoff, another station officer, told the court he led the first crew to re-enter the top floor.
“There was lots of rubbish and it was evident that the roof or mezzanine above it had fallen in.
“We were making our way down to the left through the rubble and I looked down and I was, unfortunately, standing on a body,” he recounted.
Evidence continues.
