Oil clean-up in swing after warehouse fire

Environmental officers are working against the clock to contain the impact of a fire at the former site of a Hastings oil and cleaning supplies warehouse.

Hastings' fire service resources were stretched to the limit yesterday when a blaze at VJ Distributors Ltd in the suburb of Frimley caused the evacuation of about 70 homes because of toxic smoke.

Three other houses and a garage caught fire across the road.

The warehouse, roughly 20m by 60m, contained oil and cleaning products.

Hawkes Bay Regional Council compliance team leader Bryce Lawrence said the property contained about 200,000 litres of oil and staff were now containing and collecting the oil in an effort to limit the environmental damage.

"It is easily the largest response to minimise the environmental impact that I have seen in my seven years here and I would think it would be one of the largest responses ever for the council," Mr Lawrence said.

Staff were still assessing how big the impact was, he said.

"There is a lot of oil in the drains and there are some dead fish in a nearby stream but we have contained all the oil and are now moving to collect as much of it as possible." The biggest threat to the clean-up would be rain, Mr Lawrence said, but forecasts were for fine conditions over the next few days.

"So far we have removed in excess of 50 to 70,000 litres of oil and water, mostly oil, so the progress is good at this stage."

Hastings Fire Service senior station officer Kerry Harford told NZPA the building had been completely destroyed, five houses had been damaged by radiated heat and a "fair amount of oil smoke had covered houses downwind".

However, all residents had been allowed to return to their houses after the fire was "officially out" at 5pm yesterday. There were no reports of injuries.

Scene guards were at the site overnight from police and insurance representatives and fire safety were investigating the cause of the fire, Mr Harford said.

The fire service was undertaking its own clean-up with all of the equipment covered with oil, which was expected to keep staff busy for the next several days, Mr Harford said.

The Fire Service was alerted about 11.30am and by the time the fire was under control about 80 personnel, 15 appliances, an aerial unit and command unit were involved.

- NZPA