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A small fire inside a Christchurch CBD restaurant this morning activated sprinklers, which have caused water to flood into a hotel below and guests to evacuate.

Fire and Emergency were called to the small fire inside a first-floor restaurant at Cathedral Junction around 8am.

“The sprinkler has activated and extinguished the fire before we’ve arrived,” senior Christchurch City station officer Richard Hobbs said.

“The only issue we have now is a reasonable amount of water damage due to that sprinkler doing its job, and so has that impacted the hotel below.

The sprinklers did their job in extinguishing the fire. Photo / Jazlyn Whales

“The sprinklers activated on that first floor, which pumps out a considerable amount of water, and then that’s obviously flowing down through the roof space into the floor below.

“We’ve managed to isolate the smoke damage to the first floor, which we’re ventilating now using a positive pressure fan and the water damage to this building as well, but [water damage] is definitely going to impact the Quest for some time.”

JJ, who works downstairs at the Quest Hotel, said she thought a guest was cooking bacon when she smelt the fire.

“I heard the fire alarm, and it kept going on and on,” she said.

“Then I saw water dripping from the ceiling, from the sprinkler upstairs.”

She said there were an estimated 50 guests evacuated from the hotel, and they weren’t able to get in to retrieve their belongings yet.