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Residents were awakened by “explosion after explosion” when a car yard caught fire and at least a dozen vehicles were destroyed overnight.
Northern Fire and Emergency Shift Manager Dallas Ramsey said calls were received about the fire in New Lynn, West Auckland, just after 1 am Thursday.
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Armin Pasagic / Supplied
The flames rise over a New Lynn auto yard in the early hours of Thursday morning.
“When the teams arrived there were about 12 to 15 cars on fire, which we extinguished,” Ramsey said.
Four fire trucks and crews were used to fight the fire, on Great North Rd, between Clark St and Rata St.
Lynn’s new resident Armin Pasagic said he was woken up around 1 a.m. to what sounded like gunshots.
He opened the blinds to see the massive fire about 800 meters from his house.
“I was pretty surprised,” said Pasagic. “It was the first time I saw a fire [like that]”
“It was like one explosion after another.”
Another local resident, Troy Datson, who lived just 300 meters from the site, said he believed he had heard of a car accident.
“It had the double-glazed windows closed and it originally sounded like there was a car accident. I opened the sliding door to see the fire.”
Troy Datson
Locals watched flames and smoke rise above an Auckland car park.
He heard “loud bursts and explosions” and “explosions every two minutes.”
“The cars and surrounding trees were on. Too little wind was driving the smoke straight up, which was gratitude to the locals.”
About five minutes after the explosions, fire trucks appeared and it took about 40 minutes to shut down, Pasagic said.
The air was “really smoky” for some time after the fire was put out, he said.
Ramsey said a fire investigator will be on the scene around 8 a.m. to try to establish what happened.
Police have been contacted for comment.
