Work has stopped at a Southland meat processing plant after an early morning fire.
Four crews headed to Crowe Rd in Underwood about 3.30am today to put out a fire in the roof void of Alliance Group's Lorneville Plant.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said while the fire seemed small on arrival, it took a while to completely sort out, given the size of the property. They were there about two hours.
Alliance Group manufacturing general manager Willie Wiese said the fire was in the area between the ceiling and the roof of the boiler house.
No-one was injured.
"As a result of damage to electrical cables, both boiler units are not operational, which has resulted in no supply of hot water or steam to the plant.
"This means there will be no processing at the plant today. Alliance Group will be diverting any livestock to other plants in our network for processing."
The exact cause of the fire was not yet known and an investigation by Fire and Emergency New Zealand was under way.
"We have also launched own internal investigation," Mr Wiese said.
