A roof fire which sent 10 fire trucks to a popular pub in the Canterbury town of Methven began in a fireplace in the dining room area, a chief fire officer has told 1 NEWS.
The alarm was raised at the Canterbury Hotel, also known as Brown Pub, just before 9.30am, a Fire and Emergency NZ spokesperson said.
All people have been accounted for.
Trev Den Baars hopes to have the pub back up and running in the next few days. (Source: Other)
Owner of the pub, Trev Den Baars, told 1 NEWS he is "devastated" after the fire, but hopes to have the pub up and running again to some extent in the next few days.
Chief Fire Officer Alan Burgess said investigators are still working to determine "just exactly what’s gone on there, whether it's a fault or what really has happened".
Mr Burgess said there was "a lot of smoke" when crews arrived, with the fire contained in the ceiling area of the pub.
"It was difficult to get a hold of, but it did actually keep it contained and while you could get at it and put it out, that made life just a bit easier from that point of view," he said.
"The issue being, of course, two-storey building and an old structure, wooden building, so the potential for it to really gain some momentum was there all the time, so it was a matter of getting a lot of firepower into it from our point of view - knock it down just as quickly as we could."
A fire investigator is on the scene to determine the cause of the fire.
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