Burning cereal sparks big turnout by fire crews

Firefighters arrive to battle a blaze in a commercial oven at Hubbard Foods' factory in South Auckland. Cereal worth thousands of dollars went up in smoke. Picture/ Glenn Jeffrey

Hubbards Foods gave a new meaning to the product "toasted muesli" when thousands of dollars' worth of cereal went up in smoke.

More than a dozen fire engines, and close to 60 staff, were called to the Mangere factory yesterday after a fire broke out in a commercial oven.

Deputy Fire Chief Andy Clarkson said the first engines arrived to find smoke billowing out of the building and firefighters initially thought the factory itself was burning.

However, upon inspection they discovered the fire was restricted to a large oven where cereal was being cooked.

When asked what kind of cereal it was, Mr Clarkson said he wasn't sure, but suggested it may have been "toasted muesli".

Company founder, Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard, said he was notified of the fire but did not rush down to the scene as staff had been safely evacuated and the fire was under control.

Hubbard's executive director David Irving said the cause of the fire was yet to be determined.

Production was stopped for the rest of the day while a technical team assessed the situation before the clean-up operation.

Mr Irving said the fire, which forced the evacuation of about 50 employees, was not expected to impact on cereal supplies.

"We have contingency plans in place for such any situation, and will strive to maintain our usual production levels as soon as possible," he said.

"We are fortunate in that we have healthy stock levels to continue our supply to supermarkets, which are stored in a separate building that was not affected."