'Ferocious' fire at Ponsonby Intermediate School, smoke seen across Auckland

Fire crews worked well into the night tackling the aftermath of a "ferocious" blaze at a central Auckland school yesterday.

While the blaze at Ponsonby Intermediate School was contained, crews had been set to spend most of the night on-site damping down hotspots.

Fire and Emergency said this morning that firefighters left the scene just before 8.30pm.

At its height yesterday afternoon, up to 15 crews were sent to battle the blaze.

"The main fire is extinguished and [crew] are going through cleaning all the hotspots out,"
a spokesman said last night.

At the site early this morning, NewstalkZB reporter Joey Dwyer said tape had been put up around the burnt building and a couple of passersby were trying to look in.

The fire damaged the school's techdome. Photo / Dean Purcell

Photo / Dean Purcell

Aucklanders from the North Shore and western suburbs could see smoke billowing across the city after the fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon.

The fire was in the school's tech dome, which is where art and textiles classes are held.

Police blocked off nearby streets and ambulance staff were called. St John later confirmed no one was injured.

'It was ferocious' - witness

The fire is thought to have started shortly after 4pm.

Duncan Shand of the nearby digital agency YoungShand said he saw flames leaping 9 metres in the air.

"It was ferocious. It was out of control."

Photo / Martina Vader

Photo / Martina Vader

He said the fire was coming from the back of the school and appeared to be confined to one block.

"That school block is completely gone. There was lots of stuff dropping off."

Our time-lapse camera captured the fire that broke out in Ponsonby, Auckland.

Northwesterly winds were gusting to 45 km/h in the area at the time. pic.twitter.com/0WGQi1Wol3

— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) December 8, 2020

Shand said once crews arrived, the situation was brought under control pretty quickly.

"The whole building was up in flames," he said.

Smoke billowed over the central city as fire crews battled the blaze at Ponsonby Intermediate. Photo / supplied

Year 8 student, Maddie Reece, said the blaze was scary: "I graduate in two days."

Iris Archer is also in Year 8. She said the damage was bad and it looked like a classroom would have to be rebuilt.

The circumstances around the fire are not yet known and a fire investigator was at the scene yesterday.

The blaze comes just a few days after nearby St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, on Jervois Rd, was badly damaged by a fire on Saturday.

The church fire is believed to suspicious. It is not yet known whether the two fires may be linked at this stage.