SkyCity fire brought under control
The large inferno at Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre was declared under control yesterday, although small pockets of flames continued to erupt.
Fire and Emergency NZ area commander Richard Twomey said firefighters had the fire under control by about 7am yesterday, some 40 hours after the blaze broke out.
However, there remained hot spots and flare-ups. About 2pm flames were again visible, with thick smoke drifting across neighbouring streets.
St John had treated four firefighters in total, all with minor injuries.
Work was under way to pump out the water flooding the basement, and trying to get adjacent roads open.
Fenz said that over the next few days firefighters would be undertaking the ‘‘overhaul phase’’. ‘‘This involves turning over the ash and debris within the building, looking for hot spots and damping down any we find.’’ It was not known how long this would take.
Millions of litres of water used to extinguish the fire had resulted in several basement levels including car parks being flooded, to the point where cars were submerged in the lowest level. Fenz area commander Murray Binning said 400 cars remained in the conference centre car park across four levels. But a SkyCity spokesperson said fewer than 100 cars were affected, all belonging to SkyCity employees. The spokesperson said the company would cover the costs of damage to the cars.
Mayor Phil Goff said the priority was to dampen down the hot spots and get investigators in to do their job as soon as possible.
He said the structure had coped reasonably well with the fire.