Huge fire to shut mill for weeks

Firemen hauled flammable acetylene cylinders from the workshop yesterday and cooled them in makeshift dams. Picture / Malcolm Pullman

Damage from one of Northland's biggest industrial fires in recent years will run into millions of dollars and has halted production at a Kaitaia mill until at least the end of next month.

More than 35 volunteer and professional firefighters from throughout Northland were needed to tackle the blaze at Juken New Zealand's triboard mill yesterday.

At the height of the blaze, plumes of dark grey smoke billowing upwards from the plant could be seen more than 20km away.

No one was hurt and all 80 workers on yesterday's morning shift were safely evacuated when the alarm was raised shortly before 10.30am.

But the flames gutted the mill's wood fuel store, trip store for raw materials, the mechanical workshop, main store for spare parts and the plant's board waste transport system.

No official estimate of the damage was known last night, but plant manager Dennis Clarke said it was likely to run into millions of dollars.

The mill, just north of Kaitaia, is the town's largest employer.

It is believed the fire began in a 20m by 40m building housing the bark, trimmings and chips used as wood fuel to fire the plant's boilers.

Two operators who were in the store tried to put the fire out before raising the alarm.

A secondary blaze then began in the main workshops.

The Fire Service said the destroyed and damaged area, part of the original mill complex built in the 1980s, did not have fire sprinklers.

Firefighters from Mangonui, Kerikeri, Okaihau, Kaikohe and Whangarei were helped by the Kaitaia volunteer fire brigade, which has 12 members who work at the mill.

One, Garry Rush, was working at the time.

"We were worried about the fire jumping into the refiner. It didn't and it was a bloody good save," he said.

The blaze was brought under control in about 90 minutes.

Incident controller Colin Kitchen described it as "very serious" and on a scale of one to 10 (where 10 is the worst case), he estimated it as a seven.

He said no chemicals were involved in the fire but flammable acetylene gas cylinders nearby were "a major concern".

They were later removed by firefighters and placed in makeshift water dams to cool down.

Mr Kitchen said about $1.8 million worth of machinery was in the workshop when the fire started.

The mill is the only one of Juken New Zealand's operations making triboard wood panels, with about 80 per cent of them exported to Japan.

Mr Clarke said the shutdown until the end of February would not mean any job losses among the 175-strong workforce.

Meanwhile, a ban on all fires in the open - including hangi and beach fires - is to be imposed across the Far North district from midnight this Friday.

Far North rural fire services say the district is currently very vulnerable. Water sources usually used for firefighting are at low levels in the continuing dry, hot and windy conditions.