Wairau Valley workplace accident: Firefighters rushed to hospital after finding two people unconscious in hopper

Emergency services were called to the North Shore workplace shortly before midday today. Photo / NZME

Three firefighters and two other people found unconscious in a solvent hopper were taken to North Shore Hospital after a workplace accident at Handley Industries in Auckland’s Wairau Valley today.

The two workers have since been released but Fire and Emergency NZ Tāmaki Makaurau on-call commander Brad Mosby told the Herald the agency was “wrapping support around our firefighters in hospital”.

Two crews rescued the unconscious workers, who were in a serious conditionafter being exposed to an “unnamed chemical” at the North Shore workplace shortly after 11.30am.

“[It was] an incredible effort by firefighters on scene to perform these rescues,” Mosby said.

He said the crews were wearing breathing apparatus but the two firefighters had been admitted to hospital as a precaution while they tried to work out what the chemical was.

A St John spokesperson said they sent two ambulances and two support vehicles to Handley Industries, a manufacturer of coatings and adhesives, in Hillside Rd, at 11.33am.

A WorkSafe spokesman said they were making initial inquiries: “Note, this is not an investigation at this stage.”

Handley Industries general manager Stuart Ewington told the Herald the company is also investigating.

He said the pair were in a “confined area not designed to be accessed” and succumbed to fumes.

“We called emergency services straight away. We provided our safety data sheets to ambulance officers and [the workers] were taken to hospital.

“We take the safety of our staff extremely seriously and we will be working to improve our processes. We’re working with WorkSafe to investigate and make those improvements,” he said.