happy medium

I’m not going to forget yesterday in hurry.

At about 4:45pm I headed down Parnell road from Bunker to get a bite to eat. Just after ordering, a couple of girls sitting at the window started screaming and shouting at something happening across the road.

Grey smoke was passing by the window, at first I thought it was just a car breaking down / engine fire or something, but in the seconds it took to get outisde, this was the scene:

The laundrette across the road was fully engulfed in flames and thick black smoke. The whole building was on fire, in just a matter of seconds. The woman standing next to me was on the phone to the fireservice so I started taking these photos.

It’s then I noticed a woman across the street shouting and swearing. She walked back to her car and took out a petrol can, walked to the fire and threw it in. People from above the laundrette were just getting out of the building, and the lady on the phone had started screaming that the woman had stared the fire with a petrol bomb.

The woman lit a cigarette, got into the car and drove off. No-one tried to stop her, probably due to the fact it happened so fast and people were trying to figure out the situation and were in shock.

I had started to film the event from pretty much the beginning, and so had footage of her, her actions, car and number plate, driving off, and the police arriving 10seconds after.

All this in Parnell, one of the more richer, well-to-do areas of Auckland. Complete with mock-victorian buildings and hanging baskets. Think of all the people who’s clothes have gone up in smoke…

By this time the whole place was teeming with cops and firemen. I gave my details to a policeman, including the footage on disc after popping back to the studio.

Gerrard worked at C4 and Channel3, so we decided to ring up the news if they were interested in the footage for a fee for the 6 o’clock news, in about half an hour. They were, and we were told to get down to the station as soon as possible (i.e before 6!) Not easy when the whole of parnell is gridlocked due to the fire.

After some backstreet shortcuts, got to there just in time for the footage to be edited and shown on the National News within an hour of the incident taking place…

Update
I was contacted today by 3News, for an eye-witness account on camera. After some good advice, I’ve decided not to do it. Incredibly, despite the police knowing the woman and having the plate’s number, at this time she’s still at large. I work in Parnell, and it’s just not worth the possible repercussions. Especially when someone who’s capable of petrol bombing a laundrette in the middle of the day is involved. Hopefully she doesn’t read this blog…

Update 2

Well they caught her. Throwing used tampons at random people in the street

That’s one crazy woman…

Video
At this time, I’m not going to put the footage online. Those who know me just drop me an email first.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 8th, 2006 at 2:43 pm and is filed under happy, unhappy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.