Firefighters contain large garage fire in central Tauranga

Firefighters extinguished a large garage blaze in central Tauranga on Saturday night as onlookers feared it could spread.

“We received multiple calls to a fire in Fraser Street,” Fire and Emergency New Zealand northern shift manager Gareth Lewis said.

The fire service was notified at 8.46pm.

“It was a garage fire. On arrival, the garage was found to be well-involved with fire.”

Lewis said the incident reached a second alarm, with crews from Tauranga, Greerton and Mount Maunganui fire stations attending.

Tauranga resident Debbie Walker said she was on her way home from listening to a live band at Jack Dusty’s Ale House.

“I was driving along Fraser Street from 11th Ave and thought ‘that’s weird; it doesn’t look like a bush fire’,” Walker said.

“I slowed down near the 15th Ave traffic lights. The fire was behind a house in the middle of 16th and 17th Aves.

“It could have spread or exploded or caught another house on fire because it was such a large fire.”

Fire and Emergency New Zealand crews extinguished a large garage fire in central Tauranga on Saturday night. Photo / Debbie Walker.

Lis Greaney lives nearby.

“We were sitting outside on our front deck, and we saw smoke,” said Greaney.

“Within a minute we saw the flames come up. I called emergency services, but they had had multiple calls come in already and had already dispatched fire engines.”

She said the fire “sounded and looked massive”.

“We had heard fireworks going off earlier in the night from that direction so wondered if that was related or a coincidence.”

She said the fire was swiftly contained by the fire service.

“The fire brigade seemed to get it under control fairly quickly, as we could heard them from our house.

“It seemed to take 15 minutes to get it under control before we stopped seeing the flames.”

The garage fire in Fraser Street would be seen from Turret Road on Saturday night. Photo / Lis Greaney

Lewis said the crew extinguished the fire and left the scene.

It is unknown at this stage how the fire started. No one was injured.

“We’ve only lived here less than a year, and that’s the third fire we’ve seen in our area since we’ve been here,” Greaney said.

She said of the previous two fires, one was a scrub fire, and the other was a building structure fire.

At the scene?

Phone 0800 SUNLIVE or email newsroom@thesun.co.nz