Investigation into source of plant blaze under way

The owners of the Nature's Flame plant near Taupo, which was the scene of a sawdust explosion and fire on Tuesday night, say they are working to get the plant operating again as soon as possible.

Nature's Flame uses waste wood shavings, sawdust and wood offcuts to produce wood pellets for pellet fires at its Taupo plant. The wood pellet plant, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, is owned by Solid Energy.

Solid Energy stakeholder relations manager Vicki Blyth said that at 8.50pm on Tuesday there was an small explosion and fire at the plant.

She said the plant's fire suppression and safety systems activated, and as a result the fire was contained into a small area.

Two operators were at the plant at the time but no one was hurt.

Some 11 fire appliances attended, some of those on standby, including from Rotorua, Taupo, Turangi, Tokoroa and Kaingaroa, but the fire was quickly contained and the fire trucks had left the plant by 11pm, with Nature's Flame staff monitoring it overnight.

From the outside of the plant yesterday, no sign of the fire could be seen and the damage was reported to be internal, to two sawdust hoppers.

Ms Blyth said Solid Energy had started an investigation into the cause of the fire.

"We are reviewing what needs to be done to get the plant operating again as soon as possible. However, we have good wood pellet stocks on hand and there should be no customer supply issues."