Seddonville volunteer firefighter Ian Mullholland was heading home from work in Westport at about 6:15 when he saw flames coming from the Seddonville hotel.
“I rounded the corner and noticed the pub was on fire, it was well ablaze”
He checked people weren’t inside and quickly called 111.
Mulholland told them he was going to the station to pick up the firetruck. He estimated it took less than 10 minutes to get to the fire station to grab two trucks and another firefighter.
By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the fire was almost out due to quick-thinking locals.
“Our industrious locals had actually grabbed bottles of beer, opened them and starting using them to put out the fire”
Dean White, who manages the Seddonville Hotel, said the fire started after a gas fault.
He said they used about half a dozen crates of beer to douse the fire in the corner.
“But the poor bugger that was grabbing them from the chiller, I didn’t like the look on his face, he was a bit sad every time he passed a full beer out, he wasn’t too happy but we got the result we needed.”
If they had not done it, they would have lost the pub, he said.
