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Fifty-two people had made it out of the building but firefighters were still trying to account for others, Wellington fire chief Nick Pyatt said.
Loafers Lodge resident Tala Sili told news outlet RNZ that he saw smoke pouring through under his door and opened it to find the hallway pitch black.
”I was on the top floor and I could not go through the hallway because there was just too much smoke, so I jumped out the window,” Sili said.
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”It was just scary, it was really scary, but I knew I had to jump out the window or just burn inside the building,” Sili told RNZ.
He said he was rescued from the roof by paramedics and treated for a sprained ankle.
The Loafers Lodge offered basic, affordable rooms with shared lounges, kitchens and laundry facilities. It attracted people of a wide range of ages. Some were placed there by government agencies and were considered vulnerable because they had little in the way of resources or support networks.
The hostel is in an industrial area and features billboards on one side. Dark smoke stains extended up the exterior walls on the top story of the building.
Pyatt said firefighters were called to the hostel at about 12:30 am. Emergency officials said the building had no fire sprinklers, which Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said was not required in New Zealand’s building code for older buildings that would have to be retrofitted.
Residents told reporters that fire alarms would regularly sound in the building, possibly from people smoking or overly sensitive smoke monitors, so many had initially thought it was another false alarm.
Hipkins said the building was not currently safe for police to enter and it could take authorities some time to confirm the number of dead. He told the AM morning news programme that he understood six people were dead and the number of fatalities would likely rise. Police said they did not have an exact count, although they believe the death toll was less than 10.
Police said the cause of the fire was not immediately known.
”It is an absolute tragedy. It is a horrific situation,” the prime minister told reporters. ”In the fullness of time, of course, there will be a number of investigations about what has happened and why it happened. But for now, the focus clearly has to be on dealing with the situation.”
Health authorities said two people who had been in the building were being treated at hospitals and both were in a stable condition. Three others had been treated and discharged, while a sixth patient had chosen to leave before getting treatment.
Pyatt, the fire chief, said his thoughts were with the families of those who had perished and with the crews who had rescued those they could and tried to rescue those they could not.
”This is our worst nightmare,” Pyatt said. ”It does not get worse than this.” Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said city and government officials were helping about 50 people who escaped the fire and were at an emergency centre the council set up at a running track that had showers and other facilities.
He said a number of elderly people had escaped the building with only the pajamas they were wearing.
”A lot are clearly shaken and bewildered about what happened,” he said.
The hostel provided a combination of short-term and long-term rentals, MacLean said. He did not have all the details, he said, but he believed it was used by various government agencies to provide clients with needed accommodation.
Loafers Lodge is near Wellington Regional Hospital and has 92 rooms.