Police are treating the fire which seriously damaged Flesh nightclub in Auckland as serious, and club staff believe it to be the work of an arsonist. Witnesses saw flames and exploding glass from the building at around quarter after eleven on Monday night. The fire started in the entrance and spread up the main stairwell, causing a smoke alarm to be triggered and a magnetic fire door to close. Staff and patrons were evacuated through an emergency exit, and no-one was harmed. "Because of all the homophobes out there in this country we are still vulnerable,” says club manager Nicholas. "All we were doing was minding our own business, doing our own thing and suddenly we were fire-bombed. We didn't ask for it to happen to us. We don't do it to anybody else." Police and fire services were quickly on the scene. According to a witness, police sent out an APB to all cabs in the area, which saw a person being brought back to the scene. He reportedly resisted arrest, assaulted a police officer, and was taken back to the station for questioning. Detective Sergeant Marie Costello, of the combined investigation unit, confirmed to GayNZ.com that this man was one of the people questioned following the fire. He had been evicted from the club earlier in the evening. A fire service report on the cause of the blaze is expected within the next ten days. Costello says there is absolutely no evidence that the fire was a hate attack against gays.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 29th December 2004 - 12:00pm