News Story
This afternoon's fire in an Onehunga printing warehouse escalated to a 4th Alarm, closed surrounding streets and caused people to be evacuated. The blaze quickly took over the premises in the industrial area off Victoria Street: fire-fighters toiled on the ground and from aerial appliances to get the better of the flames. There was a general alert that the fire may have involved asbestos products. The busy East-West road, Church Street was closed, blocked by hose-lines and appliances, and it was the same in Alfred Street at the back of the burning warehouse. 150 people were evacuated from the adjacent Samoan Assembly of God church just as a wedding was about to begin, the bride arriving to find the groom and everyone else leaving the building to escape acrid and hazardous smoke and fumes from the fire. The ceremony was transferred to another venue. For our members it was a long-duration operation: over 7 hours members carried out a range of duties including traffic management, deploying the mobile canteen, command unit duties, evacuation and fire-ground tasks.
