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Demolition cranes are being used to open up the south Auckland coolstore destroyed in an inferno which one fire officer says reached temperatures of 1000 degrees Celsius.
With the coolstore still burning, firefighters hope the use of the crane will enable water to access difficult to reach
hotspots.
Mt Wellington senior fire officer Tony Searle said the cleanup could take weeks, with more than 50 firefighters still at the scene.
Up to 25 appliances attended the toxic blaze at a disused freezing works coolstore on Hugo Johnston Drive in Penrose, south Auckland last night.
Out of town crews from Hamilton and Rotorua were called in to help deal with the flames.
Rail lines in the area are now open again, although smoke and steam are still a hazard. Firefighters say they could be at the scene for another couple of days.
Health officials are warning people living near the fire to keep their doors and windows closed. There is asbestos in the building, and once the fire is out it will have to be dealt with.
More than 100 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus battled the huge toxic blaze.
Massive plumes of smoke - some of them green and yellow -could be seen as far away as Waiheke Island as 25 appliances, five of them aerial, battled to stop the fire spreading to surrounding properties.
By 9pm the building, home to Garrett International Meats, was half-destroyed and firefighters were using walls of water to contain the blaze and protect a 25-tonne LPG tank on the site.
A building manager who lived on site had been found safe and there were no reports of other injuries.
Assistant Regional Fire Commander Peter Wilding said the building contained asbestos roof cladding and every firefighter involved in the incident would need to be decontaminated.
Police closed off parts of nearby Great South Rd, suspended commuter trains in the area and urged members of the public to stay away.
A spokeswoman said they had more than a dozen vehicles at the scene and were facing problems with large numbers of bystanders.
"A lot of people are going to have a look and getting in the way. Rubber-neckers are parking up and causing problems."
The Fire Service was alerted about 5.50pm. Raj Mani said he went to the site after getting a call from his wife's aunt, co-owner Lynn Garrett.
"We knew straight away it was a big one. The smoke was so dense. There was nothing we could do," said Mani.
The old meatworks was up to four storeys high in places and about 150m long and 80m wide.
Made of multiple connected buildings, it was mostly empty but contained a meat processing unit, a coolstore and truck storage area.
A relative of an owner of a neighbouring business said the fire - bigger than the one that destroyed a Mitre 10 store in nearby Onehunga earlier this month - was "very likely" to have been started by vandals.
Auckland City Fire District chief Brian Edwards said the blaze was one of the biggest in recent years and it was too early to speculate on the cause. He said it was fortunate the wind was sending the smoke high into the night sky rather than towards houses in neighbouring suburbs.
- with NEWSTALK ZB, NZ HERALD STAFF
