Fifty firefighters battled a massive blaze that engulfed a building in Auckland’s Penrose early this morning.
Crews were called to the fire at the Maurice Rd property just before 1am, according to Fire and Emergency (FENZ).
“We received a call from the security company saying there’s a fire in the building,” Auckland City assistant commander Roger Callister told 1News.
The building was being used as a car sales and storage lot, according to FENZ.
At the peak of the blaze, a spokesperson said it deployed nine fire trucks, three ladder units, one command vehicle and multiple support vehicles to tackle the flames.
Two fire trucks remained at the scene this morning, working to fully extinguish the fire at the commercial building.
Callister said: “It appears that there’s a few cars inside the building, but where most of the fire is, that’s another tenancy, so we haven’t been able to determine what’s stored in there. We’ve got quite a few minor explosions happening inside the building.”
The assistant commander said it would be a “significant fire” for the building owners.
“It looks like around 75% of the building has fire spread in it,” he said.
A fire investigator is in attendance to examine the cause of the blaze, FENZ said.