Fire crews have successfully contained a significant fire at a Christchurch scrap yard.
Assistant Commander Dave Berry says Fire and Emergency was first alerted to cars on fire at the yard in the eastern suburb of Woolston, at 7.58pm yesterday.
There were explosions and heavy smoke for several hours.
A public health warning was issued last night with people affected by the smoke. They were advised to close their windows and doors and not go outside.
No private properties were damaged although some were evacuated.
At its peak, 18 fire trucks were used to fight the blaze with more than 50 firefighters on the scene, believed to be scrap business National Steel.
Mr Berry said this afternoon the fire has now been contained to the main car pile, although it is still burning and will be for some time.
"There are six fire trucks and 30 firefighters fighting the blaze at the moment. Diggers have arrived on scene and will be pulling the pile apart to aid in the dampening down of this fire.
"This will be a long duration incident and firefighters are expected to be on the scene throughout Thursday.
"We do still encourage residents and businesses in the immediate area to keep their doors and windows closed, and for people to stay indoors in case of flare ups and smoke issues."
Cordons remain in place on the streets around the fire, including Cumnor Terrace, Garlands Rd and Marshall St.
"We again would like to thank the public and surrounding businesses for their co-operation as we fight this fire," Mr Berry said.
"Environmental efforts continue to ensure the runoff into the Heathcote River is either stopped or contained. Booms were put in place on the river and sucker trucks are being used to drain any runoff."
Residents posted images of the blaze on social media.
An animal rescue shelter Bull Breed Rescue is located near the scrap metal yard.
Spokesperson Abbey van der Plas could access her surveillance cameras from her phone and told RNZ while it was still small at that stage, she could tell it would grow, and rushed to get her eight dogs out as fast as possible.
She phoned the Christchurch City Council's Animal Control and got its offer of help so alerted other staff to get to the shelter as quickly as possible.
"We raced in and we picked up all the dogs and got them something to chew and warm jackets to wear.
"You could definitely feel the heat from our site, more so the commotion. There was a lot of explosions going on, there were a lot of rubberneckers, there was a lot of sirens and just a lot of commotion that really stressed them out."
It was best to remove them as quickly as possible because the smoke was becoming "really thick really fast".
Van der Plas said there was a huge number of compacted cars on the site with her view of the Port Hills now blocked by "a giant pile of cars".
She expected the dogs to be away from the premises for some time but the council's help had ensured a good outcome for them.
- ODT Online and RNZ
