Big blaze may take days to burn out
A massive blaze in rural Hamilton may take days to extinguish, according to a top Waikato fire chief.
The fire ripped through a row of two storey storage sheds on Raynes Rd, near the airport, on Thursday night destroying industrial equipment, hay bales and swimming pools.
Plumes of smoke could be seen and smelt as far away as Hamilton and Cambridge.
The hay bales – two storeys high and covering half a rugby field, was causing the biggest problem, Waikato area commander Roy Breeze said.
‘‘It takes a long time to burn away. In fact, it’s slower to put water on it,’’ Breeze said at the scene.
‘‘Because it just gets wet and it contains the fire. It could take a day or two for it to burn out.’’
Fire appliances were called to the scene on Thursday night at 7.07pm. More than 20 firefighters attended the blaze from Hamilton, Ngaruawahia, Pirongia, Te Awamutu and Morrinsville.
Four businesses have lost equipment in the fire.
The amount of smoke was a concern considering the proximity to Hamilton Airport, Breeze said.
‘‘Clean burning’’ would cut down the amount of smoke.
‘‘Burning it as hot as possible so we will open up the bales and take away the remnants of the shed so it clean burns.’’
Breeze said the fire was a little unusual.
‘‘Because we are in a non reticulated area using tankers, it’s a very slow process so what we did on [Thursday night] was we just contained it to whatever wasn’t burnt. We cut the fire off and then we just maintained that all night in the hope that the hay would burn down.’’
Hamilton police detective John Craig said police were called after 7pm on Thursday.
But due to the enormity of the blaze they could not conduct a proper scene examination until Friday.
‘‘We are being guided by the fire service – we have to take care of the safety aspect of the scene,’’ Craig said. ‘‘And then we will move on and conduct the investigation phase.’’
Craig said it was too early to establish what started the fire.
Police have been contacted by a number of witnesses who took footage of the fire.
Craig has asked those that were in the immediate area when the fire occurred to contact Hamilton Police on 07 858 6200.
Or anonymously leave information with Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.