“It could have spread or exploded or caught another house on fire because it was such a large fire.”
Fire and Emergency New Zealand crews extinguished a large garage fire in central Tauranga on Saturday night. Photo / Debbie Walker.
Lis Greaney lives nearby.
“We were sitting outside on our front deck, and we saw smoke,” said Greaney.
“Within a minute we saw the flames come up. I called emergency services, but they had had multiple calls come in already and had already dispatched fire engines.”
She said the fire “sounded and looked massive”.
“We had heard fireworks going off earlier in the night from that direction so wondered if that was related or a coincidence.”
She said the fire was swiftly contained by the fire service.
“The fire brigade seemed to get it under control fairly quickly, as we could heard them from our house.
“It seemed to take 15 minutes to get it under control before we stopped seeing the flames.”
The garage fire in Fraser Street would be seen from Turret Road on Saturday night. Photo / Lis Greaney
Lewis said the crew extinguished the fire and left the scene.