KEY POINTS:
Smoke and ashes filled the sky in Napier today after 100 wrecked cars went up in flames.
Napier Fire Service Senior Station Officer Bryan Dunphy said the fire started in a wrecker's yard on Wakefield St in the suburb Onekawa just before 3pm.
It spread to engulf about 100 cars stacked in the yard and the fire call out was upgraded to a third alarm, he told NZPA.
Forty-five firefighters with six pumping fire appliances and a hose leveller battled the blaze, which was extinguished by 6.30pm.
Mr Dunphy said the fire, which started in one of the cars, was being investigated, but it was not suspicious.
It was possibly caused by a spark from cutting equipment, he said.
The fire created a large plume of smoke, but there was not great risk to any surrounding buildings and no one was injured, Mr Dunphy said.
"It was just difficult access and hard to put out, because the cars were all stacked on one another."
The wrecker's yard was in an industrial area.
- NZPA
