WELLINGTON - A fire at a hostel in New Zealand killed at least six people on Tuesday.

Officials said they believe the toll could rise, with 11 people still missing.

The blaze broke out on the top floor of Loafers Lodge in the Wellington neighbourhood of Newtown just after midnight, police said.

It caused major structural damage that has hampered recovery efforts.

Eighty firefighters and 20 trucks battled the blaze.

Around 90 people were thought to have been in the building when the fire started, fire services said.

Police and emergency services said 52 people had been rescued.

Six people were taken to hospital, one in a serious condition, Wellington ambulance service said.

An additional 15 people were treated at the scene.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand deputy national commander Brendan Nally said firefighters used a ladder truck to save people trapped on the roof.

“They plucked quite a few people off the top of the roof from an area directly above the fire,” Mr Nally told Radio New Zealand.

“There was no other way. Those people were going to perish, except for the intervention of our team. Multiple people are walking around because of it,” he said.

There were no sprinklers in the hostel and the fire alarm did not go off automatically, Mr Nally said.

One of the hostel residents, who gave his name only as Chris, told public broadcaster TVNZ that he crawled out of his room to escape through dense smoke.

“It was just getting to the stairwell. It was black as, thick as smoke. It was hard to breathe. Everything’s gone. My room’s thrashed. I grabbed my vape and my phone instead of my shoes,” he said.

‘Absolute tragedy’

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins described the fire as “an absolute tragedy”.

The New Zealand leader said many shift workers were staying at the hostel, making it difficult to know how many people were in the building at the time of the fire.

“This is a once-in-a-decade fire for Wellington. It’s the worst nightmare for us,” Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s Wellington district commander Nick Pyatt said in a statement. “This is a tragic event for all involved. My heartfelt condolences go to the loved ones of those who have lost their lives.”

The Prime Minister meanwhile praised the “incredible effort” of firefighters to extinguish the fire and evacuate people.

“I acknowledge the victims and their families – an absolutely tragic set of circumstances, a tragic situation,” Mr Hipkins added.

He promised a “thorough review” of the disaster.

“There will be an opportunity to test whether this building was fully compliant with all of the rules that it needed to be compliant with, but obviously the focus at the moment is supporting our firefighters,” Mr Hipkins said.

Police said the cause of the fire was “unexplained”, and investigations are under way.

They added that they will not have more information until the 92-room building is safe to enter. REUTERS, AFP