Hastings dodged a bullet on Tuesday night.
The inferno at Hawk Packaging on Tomoana Road was almost as bad as fires get.
Fourteen fire appliances and more than 80 fire fighters, some from other North Island centres, were needed to contain the raging fire. So big was the blaze that it dwarfed fire tender ladders, the intense heat melting tyres and shattering the windscreens of fire-trucks.
The orange glow lighting the night sky could be seen from Napier and Waimarama. Residents of Hastings woke up to "Ash Wednesday" after the city was covered with ash from the mountains of cardboard trays that went up in flames.