Police hunt Southdown arsonist

Police are today continuing attempts to try to discover who lit a huge fire at the abandoned freezing works in the industrial Southdown area of Auckland on Friday.

More than 120 firefighters and 30 appliances were required at the height of the blaze, the second huge suspicious fire at the freezing works in 18 months.

Fire Safety officer Ray Coleman said he was confident the fire had been deliberately lit.

"There was no power on in the building, the building was not being utilised by anybody on site, and a few other bits and pieces that we were able to glean out of the scene took me down the line that it was an arson fire," he told NZPA.

The file had been handed to Counties Manukau police, who have begun investigations.

Detective Sergeant Craig Turley said a scene examination was completed yesterday and police would be conducting background interviews today.

Emergency services were first notified of the blaze about 8pm on Friday night.

Appliances were called in from all over Auckland, and one aerial ladder was called in from Hamilton to assist.

More than 80 firefighters were still fighting the blaze on Saturday.

It was the biggest blaze in Auckland since the previous Southdown freezing works fire in December 2008, which took nine days to quell.

That fire was also regarded as suspicious. Mr Coleman and Mr Turley said they could not recall anybody being charged in connection with that fire.

- NZPA