Firefighters are battling a large blaze at the old Fitzherbert (a.k.a. ‘The Fitz) bar in central Palmerston North, prompting warnings for residents to stay indoors and shut their windows as thick smoke blankets the area.
The fire, which began around 5:15pm on Ferguson Street, has sent flames and dense clouds of smoke towering over the city.
Palmerston North old student pub The Fitz is on FIRE! @NZStuff @nzherald @NewshubBreaking pic.twitter.com/3QvJHSaiA3
— Greg Olsen (@itsgrego) October 30, 2025
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) has urged locals, including those as far away as Highbury, to avoid the area, close windows and doors, and switch off air conditioning or heat pumps to prevent smoke inhalation.
Bye 👋 bye to a Palmerston North icon the old student pub The Fitz is on FIRE! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qtMx2LCEVz
— WildandFree17 (@Wildnfree1984) October 30, 2025
Eight fire trucks, a command unit and a support crew are on the scene, with part of the nearby Super Liquor store also catching fire. The Fitz, once a lively pub known for its raucous atmosphere since opening in 1966, had been boarded up since its closure in 2008.
Best pub in NZ at the time!
We were needle and spoon mislaid in the burning hay no doubt.
Jewish lightning?
Aww the old Fitz 🤣 I will never forget the fact that the carpet never dried out…….boy if those walls could talk. I remember the men’s toilets were so disgusting some men would pee under the tables………and that was in the 1980s!!!! I can’t believe it was still there to be honest!
Talking to a guy once who said he was at the Okaramio Hotel at Kaituna – now relegated to the anals of history
The power went out
So they filled up and had shot glass’s full of flaming tequila along the bar
Which made for a good atmosphere
That’s ingenuity in anyone’s estimation
And a good night was had by all
Along with the strippers who walked along the bar naked
Now that’s entertainment
An eyesore and a health hazard…not even the homeless would shelter there.
Do I smell an insutrance pay-out blended-in with the acrid smoke that blew towards the newly-refurbished hotel at the back?
Right across the street from Pak-N-Save as well…so maybe a block of Housing NZ Human Dog Kennels will go-up on the land now.
Kinda similar to what just went up a few months ago next to Pak-N-Save…in prep for your open-air 5G Smart City Open Air Konzentration Kamp!
But, I don’t think that a ‘Motion Entertainment’ or a ‘Drop Zone’ complex will be arriving anytime soon on the soon-to-be razed vacant land…unfortunately!
https://www.thedropzone.co.nz/
https://www.thelanding.co.nz/
https://www.motionentertainment.co.nz/have-fun/
BTW, the building is loaded with asbestos. Best to keep away until the place is totally razed under water drizzle and the parts taken away.
Even Supa Liquer was effected.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNBZRbo1-iY
Yea, it would be great to have what you mention above in red…although there is vacant land on Rangitikei Street near Tremaine Ave, and we can’t see why all of the scattered ‘entertainment venues’ here can’t come together as a shared entity like in Rotorua or Taupo..
We have Lollipops, a bowling alley, mini-golf, an indoor trampoline park, indoor go-karting, gaming facade venues, food courts, etc. but the problem is that all of these these are in sub-standard buildings and not in purpose-built.
Maybe the developers of ‘The Landing’ and ‘Motion Entertainment’ will look at Palmy North, offer the local business owners a chance to upgrade their businesses in a central location that is clean, new and in an EQ spec building.
The strippers?
On the bar in Palmy North?
Unimaginable in such a prudish town full of ecumenical churches that are hypocritical, gossipy and deeply Masonic in their ‘Church’ membership!
Just imagine all of the fossilised microscopic remnants of sperm cells and spyrochetes still in the old carpet until yesterday!!!