KEY POINTS:
A fire at a coolstore that destroyed $3.5 million worth of kiwifruit and put a fireman in hospital was caused by an electrical short.
Firefighters from up to 13 trucks from Katikati, Waihi, Tauranga and Rotorua battled the blaze at Katikati's two-storey Satara packhouse in Wedgewood St on Wednesday night.
Fire Service area commander Ron Devlin told the Herald last night the main power board situated on the bottom storey of a wall of the coolstore's office caught fire and it spread rapidly throughout the rest of the building.
He said fire safety investigators and electrical engineers had been at the coolstore all yesterday.
A 40-year-old volunteer fireman from Waihi fell 4m off a ladder on to a cylinder and suffered chest bruising. He was taken to Tauranga Hospital and was recovering at home last night.
Yesterday, coolstore workers returned to the site to see their weeks of hard work had gone up in smoke.
Packing finished last Thursday, which marked the end of the kiwifruit season for 50 staff, but six remained to move the stored kiwifruit out for shipping.
Only one of the seven coolstores still had intact pallets of kiwifruit, while in another, firefighters were greeted by kiwifruit piled like a wave across the floor, in some places more than 2m high.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
