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A welding accident is being blamed for a spectacular blaze that created a huge fireball and smoke visible for several kilometres in Auckland yesterday.
Strong for Honda - touted by its director as Australasia's biggest auto dismantler - lost its parts storeroom and staff tearoom in Angle St, Onehunga in the giant blaze, which started at 10.18am.
More than 70 firefighters battled the fire, which was fuelled by oil, rubber and other flammables.
The blaze took an hour to contain and prompted dozens of 111 calls.
Fire Safety Officer Russell Dickson said it began when staff were welding above an area where fuel was drained from vehicles into a holding tank.
A spark landed in an open drain which then ignited the holding tank containing 200 litres of fuel, he said.
"That erupted into a fireball and you can imagine the rapid spread of fire from there."
Mr Dickson said staff ran to find an extinguisher but within 10 seconds the drain and a wall holding the fuel tank and two vehicles had burst into flames.
Firefighters were met with a "wall of fire" when they arrived, he said.
Mr Dickson said the fire highlighted the need to keep an extinguisher on hand when welding.
Company director Warren Strong said all 115 staff would keep their jobs but some might have to take holidays while management found a new property to rent to continue business.
The building that burned was the main store containing spare car parts, a despatch area and the staff meal room, Mr Strong said.
The company holds the Auckland City Council contract for removing and wrecking abandoned vehicles but he said that would not be affected.
He expected demand for parts would be met again quickly as the company took in 700 cars each week.
"We've got no intention of slowing up ... we just carry on the best way we can."
Mr Strong said he was pleased his staff were fine and that there was no harm to the environment.
The company had installed a $1 million system to stop any toxic run-off in the event of fire and that had prevented hazardous materials from entering drains.
The Auckland Regional Council's pollution response manager Nigel Clarke confirmed the hazardous materials "interception" on site saved any impact on the environment.
"We're pretty happy with that."
South Auckland Chief Fire Officer Larry Cocker said firefighters had put out another fire in the yard at the site about two years ago.
The use of gas cutting equipment and other flammable products made such businesses more prone to fire risk, he said.
"It's one of the inherent risks of car part and scrap yard operations."
