Fire at Ravensdown plant, Awatoto, Napier

Flames and black smoke poured out of a large soon-to-be demolished chimney at a major fertiliser Napier plant as a fire broke out more than 40 metres up.

Fire crews were called to the fire in the decades-old red and white stacks at the Ravensdown plant in Awatoto about 9.20am on Wednesday.

A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said 20 firefighters from three separate stations were on the ground fighting the blaze.

The chimney was ablaze roughly 40 to 50 metres in the air, meaning an aerial fire appliance with a large ladder was also called to fight the fire, he said.

State Highway 51 was closed for a short time to help the fire operations team, with some fears scaffolding on the chimneys could be impacted by the fire.

Mike Whitty, Ravensdown’s chief operating officer, said about 11.30am the fire was fully extinguished. No one was hurt and all staff and contractors were safe and accounted for.

The fire was contained to two chimney stacks that had previously been decommissioned and were readying for demolition, part of a tens of millions of dollar revamp of the plant, Whitty said.

Flames were visible in one of the stacks at Ravensdown on Wednesday morning.

A column of black smoke is visible around Awatoto.

There had been no damage to neighbouring buildings.

“The contained nature of the fire event means that production at Awatoto will not be affected,” Whitty said.

“We are now working with utmost safety and care to stabilise and clean up the area and are conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire.

“We are grateful for the excellent and professional response from Fire and Emergency New Zealand and thank the local community for their understanding and support during this incident.”