A major landslide on Napier hill threatened an LPG tank at a petrol station.
The first slip crashed down behind the Hyderabad Rd Caltex station about 2.30pm on Wednesday. Dragging down trees and debris, it cut power cables to the station.
"There was no power to the site - it took itall out," station operator Kim Dolan said.
Then a second slip crashed down and hammered into a protective steel mesh wall around the station's LPG tank.
Mr Dolan was contacted and he went straight to the scene, his main concern being the LPG.
Trees and rocks had pushed into the enclosure.
"I climbed on the tank to get a reading of how much gas was in there and another slip came down about 10m away," he said.
He called the Napier City Council and the station's umbrella company Chevron to arranging for the tank to be "decanted" and to get the hillside stabilised.
Arborists began clearing the site using an 80m crane to lower an arborist down to cut and remove the trees.
"We've had a hard couple of years," Mr Dolan said.
In 2009 the station was forced to close for three days during the Chaucer Rd siege, and again last year after a problem with pumps and piping.
Meanwhile, a slip above the Salvation Army building in Faraday St, Napier, worsened yesterday.
The Salvation Army's Chris Morgan was prepared for more slips to strike the store and parcel centre but he was not prepared for the severity.
"About 100 per cent more has come down," he said yesterday.
Two slips had sent mud and water crashing down behind the centre on Tuesday night, and about 8pm on Wednesday the overhanging face collapsed. A third slip site also emerged further along the hillside the centre backs on to.
"It's blocked off all access to the rear," he said.
Mr Morgan said insurance assessors had visited the site and Napier City Council crews arrived late yesterday morning to evaluate the clean-up.
It was the second year running the centre had been hit, although, unlike last year's rainstorms and slips, the day-to-day operations had not been affected. "People can still come in for food parcels and the shop is open."
