Napier Harbor Ship Fire: Warnings to Stay Inside As Acrid Smoke Pours Over Nearby Homes

People near a large fire that broke out on a ship in Napier Harbor are told to stay indoors as potentially toxic smoke rises throughout the city.

Police and firefighters were called to a fire on a ship docked in Napier harbor at 10:45 a.m.

At 11.20 a.m. M., 11 fire and urban search and rescue devices were present, with Palmerston North fire crews on the way. An ambulance is waiting.

A spokesman for the fire service said there was “a lot of smoke around.”

“If you are affected, close the windows. Contact Healthline if you need medical advice.”

A witness at the scene said that people at the lookout began to leave the observation deck when they started coughing.

“The smoke on Hornesy Rd makes it hard to breathe. Our faces are starting to burn.”

A police spokesman urged people to stay away from the area and said surrounding roads will be closed.

At 11:40 a.m., police wearing masks began evacuating the lookout post, telling those there that the gases could be toxic.

Breakwater Rd, which leads to the harbor, closed at 11:10 a.m. M.

The photos suggest that fire has taken over the Happy city, a 161 m long general freighter built in Singapore in 2011, which is currently docked.

A resident of Seapoint Rd, Bluff Hill, said at 10.55am that it was a large fire, with the smoke so thick that it was not possible to tell what type of ship it was.

A witness at the Bluff Hill lookout at the time the fire started said the ship had been unloading containers when they heard “a couple of explosions.”

Witness Kendell O’Connor said he had seen smoke rising into the sky from Ahuriri.

O’Connor had driven toward Napier and said that as he approached, the ship was barely visible.

“It’s thick black smoke, you can barely see the boat. It’s coming out of what looks like an engine.”

O’Connor said the fire, which reeked of diesel, appeared to be isolated from the container ship.

Simon Wellum, a witness at the scene said, said it went through a small amount of black smoke before turning “very dark, very thick, very fast.”

“They were trying to put out the flames with the fire pumps on board originally, but it didn’t make much of a difference and they were evacuated,” he said.

Another witness at the scene said the ship has several wind turbines on board.

Napier Port’s annual shareholders meeting was taking place just down the road, at the Napier War Memorial Center, at the time the fire broke out.

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