Firefighters injured in suspicious fire

Two firefighters were injured in a suspicious Christchurch fire in which gas cylinders exploded last night.

The Fire Service was called to the BBQ Factory in Addington at 10.37pm after reports of an explosion, southern fire communications shift manager Brian Sharpe said.

The fire was near a number of LPG gas cylinders and police evacuated the area.

There were no further explosions but two firefighters were injured and taken to hospital.

One was released about 3am and the second was to be released this morning.

Power went out in Sydenham and Cashmere but it was not known if the fire, near high voltage lines, caused the outage.

The fire was out after about 90 minutes but appliances remained at the scene, which was guarded overnight.

Police and fire safety officers would investigate today.

- NZPA