‘Massive wall of flames’
The cause of a large fire at an Invercargill business on Saturday night remains unknown.
East Otago and Southland fire risk management officer Cathy Trevathan visited the scene of the fire at the Southland Farm Machinery building in North Rd for a short time yesterday.
However, Trevathan had no initial thoughts as to what could have caused the blaze, which destroyed the building.
She would be revisit the site today to investigate further, she said.
The Invercargill fire brigade was called to the fire after 11.40pm.
Fire Service southern communications shift manager Brent Dunn said seven fire engines and up to 26 firefighters responded.
‘‘We received multiple calls about a large fire on North Rd, and on arrival crews found the commercial building to be well ablaze,’’ Dunn said.
Police cordoned off several blocks around the building.
Firefighters were unable to enter the building, staging an external attack until just before 2am when the fire was ‘‘contained to the building of origin’’.
Fire crews from Bluff and Winton were providing cover in the city while brigades from Invercargill, Kingswell and Wallacetown fought the fire, Dunn said.
A witness to the fire, Liam MacDonald, was heading back to his Invercargill home when he saw the massive wall of flames and heard banging sounds.
‘‘The whole inside of the building was all alight. Within about 15 minutes, it had spread to the back area.’’
Undeterred by the firefighters efforts, the flames threatened neighbouring buildings due to the direction of the wind, he said. ‘‘It was only getting bigger.’’ ‘‘Real big bangs’’ could be heard coming from the buildings workshop, possibly from diesel and oil, he said.
Firefighters managed to save four tractors in the hour he watched on.