Tonnes of tapioca made conditions difficult for Mount Maunganui and Tauranga fire crews after they were called to bulk store at the airport industrial area on Saturday night.
A Mount Maunganui brigade spokesman said a front-end loader parked on top of a huge pile of tapioca stock food pellets had caught fire.
He understood the loader had been working all day in the store on Aerodrome Rd, with the heat from the exhaust combined with the tapioca the most likely cause of the fire which blackened the cab.
The location of the loader on top of the loose pellets created fire fighting difficulties and the final crew was not stood down until three hours after the alarm was raised at 11.26pm on Saturday.