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Churchgoers raced to help three children in Waitakere City yesterday as a raging fire threatened their home.
The inferno started about 11am in a Henderson boatyard and forced hundreds of worshippers to flee their churches.
Fire chief Brian Edwards said 20 appliances and 70 firefighters worked to contain the blaze,
which began in a shed on Rabone St - near the railway line and Henderson High School.
The boatyard housed four or five vessels, and flammable chemicals were on the premises.
Three children and a kitten were alone in a house close to the yard when the blaze erupted.
Trained first-aider Ellen Mullan was among about 100 worshippers who evacuated Vineyard West church.
She ran towards the flames to check that no one was trapped, and found the three terrified children, whose parents were not home.
Explosions were coming from the nearby yard.
"I said, You've got to come with me, you've got to come'," Ms Mullan said. "They were absolutely terrified."
She scooped the youngsters up and took them to the church's evacuation point, then went back for their kitten.
The children were collected soon after by people who knew them.
Jesse Anderson, 15, who was also at the Vineyard West church, believed he made one of the first calls to the Fire Service when he saw the roof of the boatyard building ablaze.
"It went from a small bonfire to the whole sky being engulfed,' Jesse said.
Church members said the fire seemed to have started from an incinerator, but Mr Edwards was not able to confirm the cause.
About 200 worshippers from Vineyard West, a Samoan church and a Tuvaluan church were evacuated and were not able to return to their vehicles until after midday.
Other people nearby described seeing fireballs and hearing explosions from their homes. The plume of smoke caused by the inferno was visible from many parts of Auckland.
One man saw it from Crummer Rd in Ponsonby.
Joy Toloa, 24, from the Peace Chapel Christian Fellowship, said she heard a bang and thought it was something hitting the roof of the church.
The explosions set off a car alarm and the parishioners went outside to see huge fireballs at least 15m above the rooftops, she said.
Delwyn Willets said her family saw the flames from their home in Glen Eden and went to have a look.
Her daughter Alyssa, 14, said she could feel the heat from the fire where she was standing on the other side of the road and across the railway tracks.
Jacob Holland, 13, was at home picking oranges when he saw the flames. He ran down the road towards them, and saw his father Neville, who is a firefighter, battling the blaze.
Fire Service communications shift manager Megan Ruru said investigators spent much of yesterday afternoon trying to work out how the inferno started.
They were still at the scene last night.