At its peak the blaze pulled in 15 crews, with 4-5 still expected to remain by 8am. Photo / Supplied
At its peak the blaze pulled in 15 crews, with 4-5 still expected to remain by 8am. Photo / Supplied
Firefighters have battled through the night to bring a large blaze at a storage facility in East Tamaki under control, but about two-thirds of the contents of in a set of storage units have been damaged.
Crews were called about 12.45am to the fire at the single-storey Safe Store facility on Harris Rd. It had progressed to a fourth alarm, pulling in about 15 crews at its peak.
Firefighters struggled to cut off the fire, with the building paper at multiple units at one building in the storage complex catching fire.
Assistant Area Commander Chris Delfos said just before 7am the scene was looking "really good" and work was being scaled back.
By 8am there would only be 4-5 appliances on the scene.
"Those appliances will probably remain here most of the morning - [we] need to get the contents of the units out of the buildings to ensure the fire is extinguished."
Some firefighters had been working through the night.
"We've sent them back to the local station at Ōtara for a quick rest and been providing meals and new uniforms. Our operational support people - who are volunteers - have also done a really good job supporting us."
The building paper in most of the units had caught fire with about two-thirds of the units suffering damage to their contents.
Delfos said there had been concerns there could be toxic materials in some units but nothing dangerous had been found, and SafeStore had assured FENZ the contents would be safe.
Fire investigators would be arriving shortly to start looking into the cause of the fire.
Nandina Ave and Harris Rd are now open but Ron Driver Place remains closed, Delfos said.
Dozens of firefighters worked on the blaze at the SafeStore facility in East Tamaki, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Delfos earlier told NZME it was proving difficult to cut off the fire because each storage unit was separate.
"We're trying to make entry and cut the fire off. However, there is some difficulty, because as you can understand with storage units, each one is separate.
"We don't know what's in these storage buildings, so that's a bit of a concern for us as far as hazardous substances and the like."
Delfos said fire had reached about two thirds of the building, but firefighters believed they have stopped it spreading further.
"There is a number of buildings of that size in the complex. We have managed to contain it to that building, but most of that building is on fire."
The fire caps off a busy night for emergency services across Auckland.
