'In seconds the whole thing was alight'

Firefighters had little chance of saving the Corporate Consumables building on Fisher Crescent. Photo / Andrew Bruce

Fire safety investigators will this morning begin trying to discover the cause of a massive blaze which gutted a building in Auckland.

Up to 80 firefighters were called to Mt Wellington just after 4pm yesterday when a massive fire started at the Corporate Consumables building on Fisher Crescent.

The smoke could be seen from the ports of Auckland to as far as Ardmore, south of the city.

Regional manager of the company, John Molyneux, said a staff worker smelled smoke and headed down to the store warehouse on the ground floor to investigate.

"He's gone down to find a fire basically. He's gone at it with a fire extinguisher but the flames have just become too much and we've had to evacuate," Mr Molyneux said.

Raul Cardoza, who works in a building opposite, said he and his co-workers were tapping away on their computers when someone noticed flames outside.

"In a space of seconds the whole thing was just alight. We saw the fire - just a few flames - and then rushed outside and it was just so big.

"Smoke everywhere and we heard the sound of glass breaking."

Mr Cardoza said about 15 people were standing opposite of the building while a handful of others were running from another side of the building.

"After, when we came back upstairs, we could feel that the windows were slightly warm."

Acting area manager for Counties Manukau, Andy Clarkson, said fire safety investigators would begin looking into how the blaze started this morning as it was getting too dark to begin investigations yesterday.