Blaze destroys fish factory, helicopter, on West Coast

A fire has destroyed a fish factory shed and a helicopter hangar in Haast on the West Coast.

Firefighters and at least two helicopters with monsoon buckets battled the fire at Barn Bay Fishing, a family-run business at Neils Beach, South Westland.

The fire broke out shortly before 9am yesterday in a building used as a hangar, Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Daryl Ball said.

No-one was inside the building, which was ‘‘completely on the ground’’, Ball said.

Neighbour Isobel Hedges said ‘‘huge clouds of heavy black smoke’’ covered the small settlement yesterday morning.

‘‘We thought we might have been asked to leave at one stage, it felt quite dangerous,’’ she said.

‘‘The flames got close to the massive petrol tanks and diesel tanks.’’

At 10.30am yesterday, Hedges said at least two helicopters were dousing the blaze.

‘‘It’s lessened a lot, but it’s still smouldering.’’

She said the building housed helicopters and operations to produce shark and fish oil.

The building owner was overseas, she said.

Another neighbour, Thomas Mattern, said the settlement’s only internet connection was lost in the blaze.

Haast Fire Brigade chief Kerry Eggeling described the fire as ‘‘intense’’ and ‘‘complex’’ because of material inside the shed.

Greenstone Helicopters operated from the same buildingand there was ‘‘nothing left’’ of a helicopter, he said.

‘‘All I saw was the exhaust sticking up out of the iron of the motor, turbine.’’

‘‘There was no sign of the tail boom, or the tail rotor, or any part of the machine. There was a bit of fibreglass around where the bubble would have been.’’

The fishing company’s oil extraction plant, ice-maker and ‘‘big-walk in freezers’’ for bait were also destroyed.

The fire crews had to be mindful of ‘‘toxic chemicals inside the building’’.

‘‘There was a whole lot of shark oil, it was actually in 1000-litre containers,’’ Eggeling said.

‘‘There would be have been eight or 10 of them stacked in there and it was burning as it was running out of the shed, on the ground.’’

The crews managed to keep two nearby fuel tanks cool to stop potential explosions and stopped the fire from spreading to a dwelling next door.

It would be a huge rebuilding job as there was ‘‘30-odd years’’ of business in the shed, Eggeling said.