Fire and Emergency has handed an Auckland supermarket back to the building owners following a fire which caused “extensive damage”.
The fire broke out at New World Victoria Park shortly after 11am yesterday, and black smoke could be seen billowing from as far away as the North Shore.
At its peak, around 80 firefighters from 23 trucks across the region, and support personnel, were at the scene.
The fire was extinguished last night and firefighters remained in place overnight to monitor hotspots.
In an update shortly before 1.30pm, Incident Controller Phil Larcombe said fire crews have now left the site more than 24 hours after the fire started.
“This was a challenging fire, because it was initially too dangerous to fight the fire from inside the building,” he said.
Crews, engineers and investigators were at the scene earlier this morning.
“The damage inside the store is very extensive as you can see from outside the store, and the inside is not much better,” Larcombe said earlier today.
Larcombe said they had not yet established what caused the fire, but investigators would be looking at all possible causes.
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“We have an area of origin in the building that we are focusing on, which is toward the rear of the building.”
“We’ve very grateful of the response of our people all across Auckland who responded. We always appreciate the work that they do.”
Larcombe also thanked the New Zealand police, St John, Auckland Emergency Management and the building’s owners.
“This is a very good time for all businesses to check that their own fire evacuation schemes are in place and meet requirements.”
FENZ said yesterday the site of the fire in the roof and mezzanine areas made it difficult to tackle.
Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin thanked fire crews and New World staff for their professionalism
“To our customers who were in the store at the time, thank you for staying calm and following the team’s direction,” he said.
“We know it must have been a frightening and confusing experience, and we’re so grateful everyone is safe.”
