Incident Commander speaks on Bromley fire

Firefighters are continuing to extinguish a fire that destroyed a warehouse and sent black smoke over the city on Monday. 

The Bromley warehouse is occupied by five businesses, two of which have now been destroyed.

Incident commander Dave Key says they expect the crew to remain there all of Tuesday. 

“It's still a bit early to say [how long they’ll be there] as we start taking out some of the product and overhaul, but I think we’ll be here for most of the day.”

The charred product remains will be sorted through and dampened to extinguish any lingering hotspots. 

“What’s really of concern is the fire needs to be out before we can leave.”

With a strong wind watch issued today for Christchurch, crews will be looking to prevent stray debris from damaging neighbouring buildings.

“With the predicted winds we will make sure that the building owner is aware of the loose cladding, and measures can be taken.”

The crew saved an electrical company from being badly damaged, however Key says others had not been as lucky.

“I understand there was a business that imported products for local suppliers like $2 shops, and a business where they recycle old computers and cell phones.”

Key says the crew were alerted to the scores of lithium batteries in the space early on.

“It's been tricky in that respect, it was another hazard we had to be aware of, and the way we fought the fire in that part of the building changed.”

He says some neighbouring businesses are still without power as of this afternoon.

“We had to have it isolated, so it didn’t affect our firefighting operations.”

Fire investigators are on the scene and beginning a search into the origin of the incident.