Six appliances called to fight fire

Hundreds of bales of pea straw were lost in a fire at a bulk landscape supplies company in Invercargill yesterday.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) was called to a fire at Diacks Nurseries after a staff member discovered a fire in the straw stack inside a covered store.

A Fenz spokesman said the service was called shortly before noon and took six appliances and staff nearly two hours to contain.

The fire spread quickly, threatening the structure, due to windy and warm conditions.

Contents of shipping containers next to the straw stack also had to be removed.

A nursery staff member told the Otago Daily Times another staff member attempted to contain the fire with an extinguisher, but it quickly escalated out of control and the fire service was called.

Crews remained on site until 3.30pm to dampen down hotspots.

By Toni McDonald