Fifty fight huge Hastings blaze | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

The fire service was this morning working on extinguishing the remains of a blaze that ripped through the Hawk Packaging factory in Hastings.

It was a case of all hands on deck as six appliances and 50 firefighters from Hastings, Napier, Havelock North, Taradale and Haumoana were called to the fire on Tomoana Rd, Mahora, after 11pm yesterday.

It is the second time in a year a fire had started at the industrial site.

Hawke's Bay fire service area commander Chris Nicoll, who arrived on the scene at 3am, said the central point of the fire was in one of the factory's warehouses.

The fire service safety team would investigate the factory today to determine what caused the fire, he said.

It took fire crews about two hours to bring the blaze under control and apart from the heat there had been no problems accessing the factory when the first appliance arrived at 11.30pm.

"Hastings was here first and did a pretty good job on containing the fire before it went to the next level, then Napier arrived," Mr Nicoll said.

"The firefighters are physically exhausted, but no one has been hurt."

Fire staff would remain at the site, on the corner of Tomoana and Conventry Rd, removing bales of paper, damaged by the fire, into a neighbouring paddock.

Staff from Hawk Packaging would also help operate forklifts to move the bales across the road.

"Some of the bales have shredded paper inside and are from the part of factory where the fire started. They are still burning inside so we need to break them open and dampen them, it's probably going to take all day.

"We've got forklifts and a couple of front-end loaders to take the bails out across to the paddock."

Firefighters had been worried about chemicals at the factory but they had since been removed.

St John Ambulance had been on site for most of the night along with a Salvation Army team supplying the firefighters with food and water as they came off shift.

Neighbours opposite Hawk Packaging on Tomoana Rd congregated outside their homes to watch firefighters battle the blaze inside the factory for the second time this year. Four fire units were dispatched to fight a blaze at Hawk Packaging in February.

"We didn't hear anything initially because we were all tucked up in bed," one neighbour said.

"Then the sirens started. We all came out and congregated on the road. There were a lot flames coming out. It was like fireworks.

"But then by midnight the firefighters had it under control so we all went inside because we knew they'd be working all night on it.

"The only thing wrong is that there was so much smoke and I'm going to have to do my washing again."