Waiheke under-11s sausage sizzle triggers library alarm, evacuates six adults and a cat
The onions were on. The librarian was not having it. The ref blew full-time from the car park.
A sideline BBQ at an under-11s football match on Waiheke Island evacuated the neighbouring library on Saturday morning after the onions on the hotplate set off the smoke alarm through an open back window.
The barbecue, run by a Green Team dad known to everyone as Macca, had been going for about eleven minutes when the alarm started screaming next door. Six adults, one work experience kid, and the library cat were shepherded onto the footpath while Macca kept flipping.
"Mate, the sausages were on the turn," Macca told The Daily Yarn, tongs still in hand. "I'm not walking away from twenty snarlers for a fucking beeping. Library can shut a window."
The librarian, Prue Halloran, said she'd asked "nicely, then less nicely" for the hotplate to be moved further down the reserve. "I've got a toddler group at ten. I've got a bloke doing his tax returns at the big table. Now I've got the whole lot on the kerb watching a man in Crocs commit arson-adjacent behaviour."
The ref, a 19-year-old from Ostend, abandoned the match in the 38th minute after a Blue Team dad told him to "get fucked, you absolute tosser" over a throw-in decision, then wandered off toward the sausages. Fire and Emergency attended, confirmed there was no fire, and left with two onion ones and a Coke Zero.
Macca is back on the hotplate next Saturday. The library is closing early.
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Reader Letters
Trev_Hornby
Safer than Rotorua footpaths!
Jojo_Birch
Mate, it's a sausage sizzle, not a bloody crime scene. People need to chill out. If I had a dollar for every time I set the smoke alarm off at home, I'd be richer than the local council tradie.
softly_sceptical
Honestly, closing the library early just because of a little smoke? Bit soft, isn't it? Shows where our priorities are these days.
Robin63
Prue should lighten up! It’s just all part of the island flavour. Sorry to the cat, though.
garry_from_ponsonby
Mate, the real crime is those Crocs. At least throw some Jandals on.
wayne1987
Typical Waiheke—everything's a drama! Next thing you know, they'll declare a state of emergency over a burnt piece of toast.
maddie.simpson
@wayne1987 imagine if they ran out of snarlers when the firefighters came!
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