Fire crews battle molten glass leak
Fire crews are enduring scorching temperatures to contain molten glass spilling out of a furnace in Auckland.
Molten glass was spilling out of a hole in the wall of a furnace at O-I NZ’S Penrose glass recycling plant at 752 Great South Road with fire crews battling for over an hour since 6.45am Wednesday to stop the spill.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Assistant Area Commander Barry Fox said sweltering 1400 degrees Celsius temperatures near the furnace meant firefighters could work only 20-minute shifts in the hottest areas.
‘‘The work can be quite arduous but the situation is under control,’’ Fox said.
Automatic sirens and alarms were still running at the facility at 9am Wednesday morning encouraging occupants to evacuate.
Firefighters operating at the site would use a low-pressure hose to cool the walls of the furnace and area around the hole which would slow the flow of the glass, Fox said.
O-I NZ is a major glass recycling company and is New Zealand’s only glass bottle and jar manufacturer.
It has been operating since 1922 and operates 24 hours a day for 365 days of the year.
Late last month it took 50 firefighters to put out a major blaze at another large Penrose factory Humes Pipeline Services.