A boat building facility that erupted in flames on Tuesday morning is a "total loss", Fire and Emergency (FENZ) says.
Luckily no one was inside the building when the blaze began around 10am, Assistant District Commander Shaun Pilgrim told RNZ.
Fourteen crews battled to contain the fire in the Auckland suburb of Glendene. Large plumes of grey smoke were sent across the west of the city.
The cause was not yet known.
"There's still going to be a while before investigators can make entry," Pilgrim said. "The building is in a transition period where it's being relocated, the business is being relocated, so we've still got a lot of questions to ask."
It took about 40 minutes to quell.
"There's the odd little hotspot that they're dealing to, so it was good quick work by the responding crews."
Because no one was inside, the fire was able to grow quite large before it was noticed, he said. But the lack of wind helped in extinguishing it.
"The plan for the rest of the day will be to just extinguish all the hot spots and try and determine a cause."
FENZ earlier advised people in the area to keep windows and doors closed to avoid any effects from smoke.
Local woman Virginia Mennell said firefighters and police reacted quickly.
"First I heard four big bangs and then just heard all the cops coming, and then I went outside and there was just smoke everywhere... I was wondering how far it was going to spread, but they were pretty fast about reacting to it."
She had lived in the area 13 years, and said explosions and fires were common.
"Last year there was a big fire down there as well. [Not the same building], further down, but still same thing... I'm pretty concerned because that happens every year. There's always some explosion down there. So yeah, it's a bit of a worry."
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
