2015 Fire and Rebuild

In 2015 Brian Ford Engineering suffered a catastrophic fire to its main building. The offices, and the main factory was destroyed by the fire. A fire-wall and the actions of the NZ Fire Service saved the back section of the factory building, however this part eventually had to have a new roof because of the heat damage. It was to become the factory for the next two years. We take pride in knowing all the trailers we had promised for Christmas delivery were made and completed on time. The fire being on November 25th. The following months and years were extraordinarily difficult with insurance and council challenges while, simultaneously, Brian and the team were working to keep the factory running as smoothly as possible.
We are forever grateful to suppliers, friends, neighbors who helped through this difficult time. When you are hot and dirty from clearing out a fire ravaged building, a smoko shout, some hot muffins, or some cold drinks just arriving unexpectedly made us all feel that others cared and were concerned for us.
The rebuild began in 2016 and was completed in 2017. We moved back into the new factory about a week short of the two year anniversary of the fire.
- Factory & yard before Jubilee St
- Front of the factory
- Same front Nov 25th 2015
- Smoko room
- Smoko room
- Office window
- Long shot from side street
- Shot from middle of the road
- Other side of the road
- Unbelievable volume of water went through those windows
- About 2am on the traffic island
- About 2am
- From Jubilee Street
- Front corner of the yard
- Sign on the building roof
- Next day front of factory
- Side of factory
- Through the front window
- Trailer in for repair
- Same trailer different angle
- Extinguisher
- Worked in here for two years
- Storage shelves
- Back of factory towards the offices
- Front of factory
- Poor old Walnut tree – it survives
- Walnut tree again
- Start of teardown
- Start of teardown
- Fenced off
- From across the road
- Our power lines
- Front of factory
- Driveway
- Build site
- Work site
- Don’t know – probably out of order
- Side walls
- Front door
- More walls
- Slabs are all up
- Roof starting
- More roof
- Nearly there
- New paint booth
- Almost done
- Almost done
- Just planting to go