Firefighters beat toxic fume risk

A fire which blew out the front of an Auckland factory yesterday was doused just in time before it spread to plastic held in the back of the building.

If it had been ablaze for much longer, melting plastic would have let off toxic fumes causing the evacuation of several buildings downwind in the industrial area of Hannigan Drive, Mt Wellington.

About 35 firefighters from the Mt Wellington, Ellerslie, Onehunga, Howick, Remuera, St Heliers, Parnell and Auckland City stations fought the blaze.

At least eight appliances attended including an incident control unit and a specialist breathing apparatus unit.

A crane was erected so firefighters could hose the fire from on top of the two-storey building which also houses an apartment.

One building across the road from the factory was evacuated as a precaution and police cordoned off Tainui Rd, which leads on to Hannigan Drive.

Onehunga senior station officer Gary Lane said the blaze started about 9am in a ground level front office of the building. About 10 people are believed to have been inside the building when it started but escaped unscathed.

The Asian owners of the building spoke limited English and did not want to speak to media.

Mr Lane said the building did not appear to have smoke alarms. They were alerted after multiple 111 calls.

It did not have sprinklers.

"Sprinklers would have definitely helped with suppressing the fire in the early stages," he said.

"This just reinforces the need for sprinklers in large buildings."

Mr Lane said plastics were made up of a number of chemicals including cyanide and could have been lethal. However, firefighters used breathing equipment as a precaution.

Because there was only a gentle breeze and most of the smoke vented through the roof of the building, the fire was put out without too much hassle, Mr Lane said.

Fire safety investigators were looking at how the blaze started.

Insurance assessors arrived within an hour of the fire starting.