Acrid black smoke from an accidental tyre fire prompted a mass turnout of fire appliances in a Dunedin industrial area yesterday.
The fire started in an auto-dismantling workshop at the former Burnside freezing works in Kaikorai Valley, when rubbish left in a vehicle caught fire, the Fire Service said.
Jack Maqswodi, from JPNZ Autoparts Ltd, said the four staff in the workshop got out without incident, after failing to put out the fire with extinguishers.
Dunedin Senior Station Officer Bob Calder said the Fire Service was called to the Eclipse Rd property at 9.45am. The blaze had spread to a pile of several hundred tyres. Of particular concern was a large 1000-litre plastic tank of drained fuel near the blaze.
The fire prompted a turnout of every available fire appliance in Dunedin, and dozens of firefighters.
''It was a good save for us, because it had the potential to burn the whole bottom floor out.''
''We were very lucky that guys were able to cut it off and hold it there until we were able to get more men there and extinguish it.''
Intense heat also built up inside the building, which has a concrete floor and roof, and firefighters had to pump water a long way to the fire.
Firefighters in breathing apparatus could not see the flames, and used a thermal imaging camera when approaching the source of the heat.
''Because of the thick black smoke in the building, you couldn't see an inch in front of your face,'' Mr Calder said.
While no-one sustained any injuries, ''there was a lot of dirty firefighters'' from the thick black smoke.
Firefighters finished at the scene just after 1pm.
The building sustained heat and electrical damage.
John Jack, from MSR Engineering, one of about 20 tenants with businesses on the site, said he was returning to the building when he saw black smoke pouring from windows about 10am, and called 111.
He tripped the alarms and people evacuated the building, as per the emergency plan.
The fire was contained to the ground floor of the main building, but thick, black smoke quickly spread around several interconnected buildings because of the open-plan nature of the former freezing works site.
The site is owned by Kaikorai Property Investments Ltd.
Speaking as the on-site contact for owners, Mr Jack said the fire started on the ground floor, in the premises of JPNZ Autoparts Ltd.
The floors above JPNZ, in the main part of the buildings, were unoccupied.
Mr Maqswodi said because of the smoke the fire looked worse than it was, and damage was less than they expected.
Workers hoped to be back at work within a few days.
