Smoke pluming over Cromwell from large blaze in commercial building
Wednesday, 16 February 2022
Firefighters battling a blaze at a commercial building in Cromwell, Otago, are expecting to remain overnight to keep it down.
Eight fire trucks were called to a large fire at a commercial building, but have since scaled back to four trucks and two support vehicles as they make “good progress” on extinguishing the fire.
The fire broke out in the McNulty Rd building about 4pm on Wednesday.
A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said the fire was expected to be a “long duration” event and could rage until midnight, with a lot of smoke in the area.
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The fire’s location inside the large building, which was “compromised”, and a lack of water sources in the area were causing delays in extinguishing, the spokesman said.
A digger and loader was being used to remove items on fire from the building, so they could be put out with minimal risk, he said.
A fire investigator was on scene and a crew may remain overnight to monitor hot spots.
The cause of the fire had yet to be determined.
Members of the public were urged to stay out of the smoke and keep doors and windows shut.
The fire broke out in the yard of CromTrans, the Central Otago District Council said in a post on Facebook.
It warned people’s water supplies may be affected because of the high demand for water to fight the fire.
“Therefore you may experience low water pressure or potentially no water in parts of the town,' the post said.
The post was later updated to say that water could be turned off in some parts of the town for short periods, as a last resort.
CromTrans chief executive Peter Carnahan said the fire broke out in a storage shed where kerbside recycling is consolidated before being moved to a processing facility.
The shed is large enough for two trucks to dump recycling in, he said.
There was recycling inside the shed, and no staff or trucks were in the shed when the fire broke out, Carnahan said.
“Because of the material involved it will take some time to extinguish, which they expect to take some hours yet,' Carnahan said about 8pm on Wednesday.
He said he had no indication of how the blaze began.
A subsidiary of CromTrans collects kerbside recycling in Cromwell and Alexandra and takes it to the McNulty Rd site before it is taken for processing.