Shearing shed gutted by blaze, wool destroyed
More than 30 firefighters battled for close to three hours to extinguish a fire in a shearing shed near Geraldine on Monday night.
Geraldine chief fire officer Graeme Mould said three fire crews from Geraldine and one from Rangitata were called to the burning 200sqm steel shearing shed which contained several tonne of wool, on State Highway 97, between Geraldine and Rangitata about 9.30pm.
Mould said the fire was ‘‘well involved’’ when crews arrived.
The shed contained between seven and eight tonne of wool, which was wrapped in nylon fadges, he said.
‘‘It was a steel frame shearing shed, it was a little bit difficult to put out, [because of] getting access.
‘‘It was difficult being a steel building, we only had a little side access door until we cut some holes.
‘‘We made access by cutting some holes in the side of the building with a cut off saw.’’
Mould said crews from Hinds, Peel Forest and Temuka were also called to the fire, which was fought by 33 firefighters in total at the height of the blaze.
‘‘The crews did a good job, it was difficult to get water into the building.’’
‘‘The wool is inherently not that flammable, the nylon fadges it’s wrapped in were.’’
Mould said crews also worked on the assumption the flammability of the building would have been added to by the likely presence of a raised wooden shearing floor under the stored wool.
He said there were also other elements of the building that were made of wood, and would also have caught fire.
Given the building had a steel frame, the roof fell in and the building ‘‘just collapsed in on itself’’, Mould said.
Fire Safety investigator Craig Chambers said he had met with the owners of the shearing shed on Tuesday morning.
They had begun the process of working out the cause of the fire.
Chambers said there were ‘‘only a couple of things’’ which could have caused the fire
The fire was ‘‘not suspicious in any way’’, he said.
Chambers said the fire had been ‘‘slow developing’’ at first, however it was ‘‘totally involved’’ by the time crews got there.
The building was insured Chambers said.
He was hopeful of having a verdict on the cause of the fire within the next couple of days.
The owner of the shed, Bruce Rogers, the owner operator of Bruce Rogers Shearing, didn’t want to comment on the fire.
However he said he was impressed with the work of fire crews on tackling the blaze.