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KEY POINTS:
More than 100 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were last night fighting a huge toxic blaze at an industrial complex in south Auckland.
Massive plumes of smoke - some of them green and yellow - could be seen as far away as Waiheke Island as 25 appliances, five of them aerial, battled to stop the fire spreading to surrounding properties.
By 9pm the building, home to Garrett International Meats, was half-destroyed and firefighters were using walls of water to contain the blaze and protect a 25-tonne LPG tank on the site.
A building manager who lived on site had been found safe and there were no reports of other injuries.
Assistant Regional Fire Commander Peter Wilding said the building contained asbestos roof cladding and every firefighter involved in the incident would need to be decontaminated.
Police closed off parts of nearby Great South Rd, suspended commuter trains in the area and urged members of the public to stay away.
A spokeswoman said they had more than a dozen vehicles at the scene and were facing problems with large numbers of bystanders.
"A lot of people are going to have a look and getting in the way. Rubber-neckers are parking up and causing problems."
The Fire Service was alerted about 5.50pm. Raj Mani said he went to the site after getting a call from his wife's aunt, co-owner Lynn Garrett.
"We knew straight away it was a big one. The smoke was so dense. There was nothing we could do," said Mani.
The old meatworks was up to four storeys high in places and about 150m long and 80m wide.
Made of multiple connected buildings, it was mostly empty but contained a meat processing unit, a coolstore and truck storage area.
A relative of an owner of a neighbouring business said the fire - bigger than the one that destroyed a Mitre 10 store in nearby Onehunga earlier this month - was "very likely" to have been started by vandals.
Auckland City Fire District chief Brian Edwards said the blaze was one of the biggest in recent years and it was too early to speculate on the cause. He said it was fortunate the wind was sending the smoke high into the night sky rather than towards houses in neighbouring suburbs.
Auckland Regional Council staff were on site but they said it was too early to comment that the health risks were connected with the blaze.
Auckland Regional Public Health staff were also attending.
