Thieves add to blaze misery

Terry Baylis, a fire investigator, in the middle of the charred remains of the Robertson Plastic Factory in Dargaville. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Residents forced to evacuate their Dargaville homes due to masses of toxic smoke from a large factory fire were dealt a second blow when thieves looted their homes.

The raiders stole items including laptop computers storing precious photos.

One resident had returned home against advice to stay away and was asleep with his wife when the thieves struck and stole a new computer and opened a handbag and rifled through the contents. They then moved next door, smashed through the back door of his transport business and ransacked his office, taking an empty cash box.

Nine fire appliances and more than 60 fire service staff battled the fierce blaze at Robertson Plastic Factory in Logan St, which broke out about 9.30pm on Tuesday. All that remained of the roughly 80m x 60m factory was a mass of warped steel frames and mangled corrugated iron. Fire walls on either end stopped the spread of fire into a kumara storeroom and coolstore plus a kumara processing plant. Fire investigators were expecting to speak to factory owner Noel Roberston yesterday, hoping he could help establish how the blaze started. Seven houses on River Rd were evacuated, including the Bryants'.

"The fire brigade told us to get out because of the toxic fumes so all we could do was go round the corner and watch. We went home about midnight and opened up all the doors," Mr Bryant said.

It was when he got up to go to work yesterday he noticed his wife's upturned handbag and the missing computer. At his Dargaville Carriers office next door, the office was ransacked and an empty cashbox stolen.

Only a few doors along the art studio of Mandy Wood was broken into and a laptop containing photos of all her art work, which had not been backed up, was stolen.

Neighbour Debbie Paniora, who has lived opposite the factory for 26 years, had just finished tea when she heard "muffled bangs".

"I looked out and could see flames coming out the roof ... it was well and truly going by the time we heard another bang. We rang 111 straight away. There was lots of popping and crackling as things started blowing up."

Dargaville chief fire officer Jeffrey Palmer said when his crew arrived flames were leaping from the roof.

At least a million litres of water was drawn from a nearby reservoir to fight the fire and firefighters used about 100 oxygen cylinders.

Fire investigator Craig Bain said it would be days before the cause of the fire could be determined.

Kumara storage building owner Denys Suckling said he bought two adjoining sheds from the factory five years ago and grumbled about the cost of putting a firewall in as directed to by his insurance company at the time. But he realised the benefit of doing so with the coolstore and storeroom barely affected by the blaze.

He said about 1200 bins from 15 growers were stored there and equated to 40 per cent of the kumara supply for New Zealand supermarkets up to January next year. A health inspector was to check the produce and about 100 bins were expected not to meet human consumption standards and be written off.