World News for Students of English

20-06-2025 07:00

A major fire broke out at the New World Victoria Park supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand, and took 10 hours to extinguish. Firefighters remained at the site to monitor and control hot spots.

The store was undergoing renovation, including recladding, modernization, and the addition of a new area for online order storage and distribution. Experts believe the fire started at the mezzanine level, where this work was taking place. The fire caused extensive damage, but the exact cause is still unknown.

The next steps involve insurance assessors and engineers checking whether the building can be repaired or if it needs to be demolished and rebuilt. The building is complex, with a suspended floor and heavy truck-loading zones, which makes the engineering assessment more difficult. It may take years before a new supermarket opens on the site.

Meanwhile, a large new supermarket is under construction in Christchurch. It will serve around 35,000 people a week. It has a large water tank for firefighting in case of emergencies.

Difficult words: reclad (to put a new outside layer on a building), mezzanine (a small floor between two main floors in a building), assessor (a person who checks damage or cost).

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