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Firefighters have used portable showers to wash themselves down after fears they were exposed to arsenic while fighting a fire at a gold casting company this morning.
The fire at the Regal Castings factory in Mt Eden broke out this morning at 7.30. More than 40 fire fighters attended the blaze.
Auckland fire communications shift manager Tony McDonald said mercury, arsenic and sulphuric acid were just some of the chemicals used in gold casting.
He said a train commuter called to report black smoke coming from the Regal Castings building in central city Mt Eden about 7.30am.
Mr McDonald said that was the only call fire fighters got and they were given the wrong road.
"When the guys got there they did a search. They searched the surrounding streets, and bingo, there it was," Mr McDonald said.
"Of course it was locked up tighter than tight and we had to force entry through steel doors to get at it," Mr McDonald said.
Steel cutting gear was used to gain entry and the fire was extinguished about an hour later.
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
