“I’ve never seen flames like it,” he said.
Whiteside said the whole campground was
woken up by the blaze.
“It was crazy, the building was well alight, all the campers got up because it was so bright and visible,” he said.
Once the firefighters got there, “they doused it quite quickly”, Whiteside said.
Despite this, Whiteside said there were initially concerns about how quickly the fire would spread.
“When you first see a big fireball like that you do wonder ... but in the end it was more an astonishing spectacle,” he said.
A Fire and Emergency Services spokesperson said they received the first of multiple calls to a building fire in the Piha area at 11.52pm.
“We sent five fire trucks, one ladder truck, two support vehicles and one command unit,” he said.
Smoke billows from a fire in the RSA building at Piha. Photo / Ella HouseThe spokesperson said the fire was about 30m x 30m and had also spread to a smaller building next to the main structure.
“The fire is now well extinguished and a fire investigator is returning today,” said the Fire and Emergency spokesperson.
More to come.
