Two people have moderate injuries after a massive industrial fire in South Auckland that sent plumes of thick, toxic smoke into the air.
The blaze started on Tuesday morning at an industrial site on Roscommon Road in Wiri and the smoke could be seen from several kilometres away.
Fire and Emergency posted on Facebook urging those nearby to close their windows and doors and avoid exposure.
The response was escalated to a third alarm resulting in about 17 units deployed and the major road closed down.
Fire trucks at the site of a blaze in Wiri that closed a main road in the Auckland suburb. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
FENZ incident controller Dave McKeown said there was little left of the 70m by 30m building.
"We've had a fire in a warehouse that stores polystyrene... it's completely gutted, the building's collapsed in on itself," he told RNZ at the scene.
Crews atop several aerial trucks doused the building from the air because the fast-spreading fire fuelled by polystyrene made it too dangerous to enter.
"If you imagine a building stick to the roof of petrol, that's kind of what it was like at the start, which is why we haven't sent any people in there," McKeown said.
"We've just used our aerial appliances to surround it and put the fire out as best we can."
McKeown said the polystyrene posed a real danger, and fires involving it "burn really quick".
"We could go in with breathing apparatus on, but the reason we don't go in is because of the rate that the fire spreads," he said.
"But for members of the public, the smoke is very toxic, luckily today we've got favourable wind conditions."
Fire crews dampen down the site of a blaze at Wiri, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
McKeown said the smoke had blown up high and was taken out over Manukau Harbour.
He said two members of the public were assessed by St John with one taken to hospital.
A firefighter was also taken to hospital suffering heat stress.
St John told RNZ it transported two people to Middlemore Hospital, both were in a moderate condition.
It assessed three patients in all, and sent three ambulances, an operations manager and one rapid response vehicle, St John said.
McKeown said it was too early to say what started the fire but investigators were at the busy scene.
"And they are working with the building owners and occupants to establish what's happened."
Firefighters at the scene of a blaze at an industrial site in Wiri, Auckland. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
The fire sent plumes of smoke that could be seen from several kilometres away. Photo: Supplied / Ben Chissell
Photo: Shaun McLaughlin
Emergency services at the site. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
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