Contractor's saw sparks blamed for meat plant blaze

The severely-damaged Silver Fern meat works. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Sparks from a contractor's saw are believed to have ignited the blaze which gutted a Waikato freezing works, leaving hundreds of workers jobless weeks before Christmas.

The Silver Fern Farms plant, one of the Te Aroha area's major employers, was extensively damaged by the fire, which started late on Friday night.

Three-quarters of the building was destroyed.

Waikato district fire safety officer Kevin Holmes was yesterday among fire investigators and insurance assessors sifting through the damage at the plant, about 5km south of Te Aroha.

Mr Holmes told the Herald the cause of the fire was sparks from a saw being used by a contractor to cut through exterior cladding to install a condenser on Friday afternoon.

Mr Holmes said that behind the exterior cladding was a sandwich board which had a tin exterior and a polystyrene interior.

"It appears that the saw generated some sparks which began smouldering in the polystyrene ... it would have been festering away within the wall panel for quite some time," he said.

Firefighters were called to the blaze about 11.30pm Friday night.

Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper said he would be meeting staff today at the Te Aroha College Old Boys rugby club.

The company intended to make sure staff were looked after, at least in the short term.

"We will need to talk to staff about other employment options," he said. "In the meantime we will take them through the short-term position in terms of wages."

Although the plant was in its peak production phase with two shifts working each day, Mr Cooper said the company's productivity would not be affected, as stock would be taken to other plants for processing.

He indicated the fully-insured plant was likely to be rebuilt - one of the options to be discussed with insurers over the next few days.

"It's an existing plant and an important plant in the group, we have a great work force there and a good supplier base in the region," he said.

"It processes 100,000 animals a year, and we still want to process 100,000 animals here."

Matamata Piako mayor Hugh Vercoe said the plant had the necessary resource consents to be rebuilt, and a willing workforce.

But there would be "downtime" in getting the project finished, affecting not only the families concerned but the local economy.

"It will be enormously disruptive for the families of Te Aroha but it is a very resilient community and they will come together to deal with it the best they can."

An employee at the plant, who asked not to be named, said the fire was a "real kick in the guts" for the staff and their families.

The man has worked at the plant for more than 10 years and said he would not be affected by the possibility of having to move to another of the Silver Fern Farms plants, in Dargaville or Hastings, to work.

"But the average age here is guys of about 28 and most of them have kids so it wouldn't be that easy for them," he said.

He did not know what would be discussed at today's meeting but was confident the plant would be rebuilt.

"What happens in the meantime is what we are worried about."