Mass fire in a three-story building in Tūākau, several crews fight the flames

Emergency services are responding to a massive three-story building fire in Tūākau, Waikato tonight with flames shooting 30 meters into the air.

Huge plumes of toxic black smoke could be seen floating above the fire.

Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) said they received multiple calls just before 8:20 p.m. about a fire in a building on Lapwood Rd.

At 10:40 p.m., 19 Fenz appliances were on the scene addressing the third alarm fire.

The fire is understood to be at Tūākau Proteins, a meat and animal by-products processing plant.

Resident Dave Lesperance said he could see flames shooting 100 feet into the air.

“Everything was on fire.

“It’s not windy, so the smoke cloud went straight up.”

A Fenz spokesman said there were no reports of injuries or anyone inside the building.

“Upon arrival, he was well involved.”

Fenz initially understood that the building was 50 meters by 40 meters in size, but said in a later update that it was a three-story building measuring 200 meters by 200 meters.

“Now that we have seen it better, it is a much bigger building than they thought.

“The fire is located in the building and it is completely involved.”

He said the teams would probably be at the scene all night.