Firefighters beat deadline for paper fire

Firefighters are likely to hand an Auckland paper reclamation warehouse back to its owners sooner than expected after fire ripped through thousands of bales of waste paper on Wednesday.

The Paper Reclaim warehouse in Penrose billowed dense clouds of white smoke for two or three hours as fire crews tried to get to the seat of the fire at 11am on Wednesday.

After cutting through the roof to get water on top of the fire, firefighters brought the blaze under control and began moving smouldering bales of paper and plastic outside to pull them apart and dampen them down.

Auckland chief fire officer Brian Edwards said yesterday that they had made better progress than originally thought and were due to leave the warehouse last night.

On Wednesday he said the large number of smouldering bales would probably take two or three days to completely extinguish.

Fire safety officers were still investigating the cause of the blaze and believed they might have pinpointed where it began but there did not appear to be anything suspicious.

Mr Edwards said the Fire Service constantly urged building owners to install sprinklers.

"Had that building been sprinklered there certainly wouldn't be the damage that is in there now."

More than 25 fire engines and support vehicles and about 70 firefighters battled the blaze at its height.

Several buildings in an adjoining industrial complex were evacuated.

- NZPA