New Zealand / Emergency Services

Large blaze in Ōtāhuhu now largely extinguished

21:17 pm on 1 November 2024

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

A large fire at a factory in the Auckland suburb of Ōtāhuhu has now been largely extinguished.

Firefighters were called to the building on McGee Street about 3.20pm on Friday and found it well ablaze.

The fire then spread to an adjoining building, Fire and Emergency NZ incident controller James Hall said.

Fifteen trucks and two support vehicles were battling the blaze at its peak.

Hall said about 8pm that firefighters had contained the blaze in the second building and were working to fully extinguish it. They were also dampening down hotspots in the original building.

The first building housed two separate operations - one involved timber and the other involved automotive spray-painting, Hall said.

The second building was used for storage, and was understood to have contained plastic bottles.

Firefighters would remain at the scene well into the night, to dampen down hotspots, Fire and Emergency NZ said in a statement about 9.15pm.

It would take several more hours to make sure all the material had been burnt out, but the fire was largely extinguished.

A smoke warning earlier issued to nearby residents had now been lifted.

Train services were suspended for a few hours between Middlemore and Ōtāhuhu because of the fire, which was very close to railway lines.

Auckland Transport said about 8pm that the power had been turned back on at Ōtāhuhu Station, "which means our train services can now run all the way along the Southern and Eastern lines.

"Because of the significant delays earlier this evening due to the fire in Ōtāhuhu there will continue to be some delays and cancellations across the Auckland rail network this evening."