{"id":378496,"date":"2026-04-14T05:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378496\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T05:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T05:45:07","slug":"te-arai-links-fire-lithium-cart-fault-possible-cause-of-rics-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378496\/","title":{"rendered":"Te Arai Links fire: Lithium cart fault possible cause of Ric\u2019s blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ric\u2019s Restaurant went up in flames on Sunday<\/a> about 10am. Diners were hurriedly evacuated as the blaze spread through the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe staff did an absolutely fantastic job of evacuating the people to safety,\u201d Wirihana said. <\/p>\n

A guest having breakfast at the restaurant when the fire broke out said they watched the fire get \u201cworse and worse\u201d as it spread through the building.<\/p>\n

Staff reportedly tried to put the fire out themselves using extinguishers but were unsuccessful. <\/p>\n

About 20 people were evacuated first to a carpark and later to Ocean Restaurant, one of six hospitality venues on site.<\/p>\n

Wirihana was at the Whang\u0101rei Fire Station preparing for Cyclone Vaianu when the call came through. <\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency New Zealand was notified by 111. <\/p>\n

Wirihana responded as the senior officer on scene to assist the incident controller. When he arrived, the fire had gone from being well-involved to a \u201cstructural collapse\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"Ric'sRic’s Restaurant at luxury golf course Te Arai Links was gutted in a blaze over the weekend. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

Support came from Wellsford, Mangawhai, Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto, Leigh, Paproa and Whang\u0101rei. <\/p>\n

The fire was within 100m of the local boundary, meaning they could call on firefighters from both sides. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think they did a great job getting the fire under control, and it was a real collaborative approach,\u201d Wirihana said.<\/p>\n

Strong winds made it difficult to extinguish the fire, and the building\u2019s location meant crews could only fight it from two sides. <\/p>\n

There was a risk of losing corrugated iron roofing in the wind, reducing the response from four sides to two.<\/p>\n

The diner said the plumes changed from black smoke to grey and then \u201cbright orange flames\u201d as the fire took hold. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt smelled electrical rather than that black, smoky smell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FireFire engulfed Ric’s Restaurant at Te Arai Links golf course. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Staff were \u201creally amazing\u201d throughout the process, they said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt so sorry for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the staff at Ric\u2019s live on site, so they were watching this happen to their home as well as their workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Te Arai Links said Sunday afternoon via a social media post that it had been a \u201cvery emotional day\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to extend our sincere thanks to the fire brigade for their rapid response,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRic\u2019s is more than a restaurant \u2013 it\u2019s the heartbeat of Te Arai Links. It\u2019s where our team and our guests come together, and where so many moments have been created.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation into the fire continues.<\/p>\n

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whang\u0101rei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ric\u2019s Restaurant went up in flames on Sunday about 10am. Diners were hurriedly evacuated as the blaze spread…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[62037,4996,52439,25346,8604,18478,115093,62381,2079,18126,45190,2442,14633,197090,206,111,43,139,69,1118,10903,17398,36200,2539,196073,2552,8690,1361,102],"class_list":{"0":"post-378496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-arai","9":"tag-blaze","10":"tag-cart","11":"tag-cause","12":"tag-caused","13":"tag-course","14":"tag-electrical","15":"tag-fault","16":"tag-fire","17":"tag-golf","18":"tag-gutted","19":"tag-links","20":"tag-lithium","21":"tag-lithiumpowered","22":"tag-luxury","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-of","28":"tag-popular","29":"tag-possible","30":"tag-potentially","31":"tag-restaurant","32":"tag-rics","33":"tag-service","34":"tag-te","35":"tag-that","36":"tag-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}