Significant fire safety defects mean residents of City Garden Apartments on Albert St need to evacuate on short notice.
Auckland Council has issued a Dangerous Building Notice for the building.
Residents were told on 12 April that they needed to leave by 22 April, in a notice posted on the window at the entrance of the building.
Also posted is a letter to the apartment's body corporate from Fire and Emergency dated 21 August 2023. It outlines a series of major safety concerns it has about the building.
In the letter, FENZ said the building had not had a warrant of fitness since 2017, that it was unclear whether the building's fire alarms could reliably alert occupants to a fire, or that residents could reliably find the escape routes due to the condition of the signage.
It also said the escape routes did not offer protection to anyone using them from a possible fire, and that it was unclear whether they could deliver water to the upper levels of the building in the event of a fire.
A renter at the apartment who has lived there for more than a year said he had not received any notice to vacate.
But he said the building had a cockroach infestation and the fire alarm frequently went off.
RNZ reporter Lucy Xia, who was at the scene, said extensive roadworks on Albert Street could impede access for firefighters to the building.
The 16-storey tower is located on Albert St, and back in 2018 was found to have the same type of highly combustible cladding as London's Grenfell Tower, where more than 70 people died in a rapid-fire.
RNZ
