Rotorua fire crews last night battled a fire in Rotorua's Eastern Suburbs.
The fire was in a large single storey storage area at Claymark Industries, a mill, on Oasis Pl, off Hona Rd, in Ngapuna.
A Fire Northern communications spokeswoman said the fire was well involved when fire crews arrived with flames measuring about 8m by 15m.
Firefighters were battling to keep the blaze away from a main Claymark factory area.
The spokeswoman said they received reports at 6.30pm to say the fire had been contained to its original area.
Resident Phillip Mutu, who lives directly across the road from the fire, said he didn't realise what was happening until he heard all the sirens.
"I looked up and saw all the smoke billowing out of one of Claymark's storage units. There is a lot of dry timber kept in the storage area where the fire was which would have fuelled it.
"More can be seen from the other road but there is a strong smoke smell all around the area."
Mr Mutu said he usually saw the Claymark Industries employees leave work around 6pm but could not confirm whether people were evacuated.
He said the fire crews had been on the premises a while trying to contain the blaze and stop it spreading.
While firefighters drenched the right hand side of the unit, forklifts were bought in to retrieve some of the stored wood from the other end.
Fire crews from Rotorua and Ngongotaha attended.
Nobody from Claymark Industries could be contacted for comment.