Cause of winery blaze sought

Investigators probing a blaze that destroyed most of a historic Waikato winery will be back at first light to look into the cause.

Flames ripped through Vilagrad Winery yesterday morning.

Specialist fire investigator Kevin Holmes told the Herald last night the investigation was still in its early stages.

After firefighting operations were scaled back, the focus had shifted to making the site safe for examination to resume.

Yesterday flames and smoke from the blaze could be seen from kilometres away.

There were about 70 firefighters at the scene - on Rukuhia Rd at Ngahinapouri, south of Hamilton City - during the fire.

Waikato fire area commander Roy Breeze confirmed the blaze began in the kitchen and office area and was well on the way when firefighters arrived.

"It was spreading in a number of directions, particularly towards the wine-making and storage area but we managed to cut it off."

Mr Breeze said a lack of water supply on site hampered firefighting operations.

He described the winery as iconic and said firefighting efforts were carefully managed because of about 40 20kg LPG cylinders on the scene. The office block, kitchen, portable cooling sheds and surrounding equipment were all destroyed.

Nobody was inside the building or injured by the fire.

The business' website states it was set up in 1922 by Ivan Milicich snr, and is now in its fifth generation with Nooyen brothers Jacob, Kristian and Adam in charge.

Jacob Nooyen said though the family were shocked, they were all hard workers and were determined to rebuild. Belinda Feek, additional reporting: Lincoln Tan