Rotorua loses tourist attraction

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 3

Rotorua loses tourist attraction

Rotorua One of the Rotorua district’s tourist attractions, the Agrodome at Ngongotaha, was reduced to a skeleton by fire at 3.30 a.m. yesterday. The cause of the fire is not known. In spite of being quickly on the scene, firemen of the Ngongotaha and Rotorua brigades were unable to contain the flames. The Agrodome, a big agricultural display centre, opened in 1972 with a jthrough-put of 60,000 visitors, has built into a milliondollar yearly turnover, attracting world-wide interest and 400,000 tourists last season. The alarm was raised by Mr J. Swainson, the farm manager of the A. and P. society which leased the land on which the Agrodome was built. Mr Swain-son, who lives 200 metres from the Agrodome, was awakened by the burglar alarm and, looking out the window, saw a glow in the front office. He called the Fire Service immediately and then went to the building. Mr Swainson tried to control the fire with a hand hose but it quickly reached the roof and the whole building iexploded into flame. Station Officer R. E. Bowditch, in charge of the Fire Service, said the Agrodome was well ablaze when the brigades arrived and all they could do was contain the flames. Water had to come from a stream 200 metres away. At dawn all that remained of the Agrodome was tire laminated wooden beams Which the structure had been built round. Fire and water destroyed all of the $lOO,OOO souvenir Stock and all the records and correspondence of the Agroidome.