Trains cancelled, road closed after fire breaks out near Newmarket …
Fire erupts near Newmarket Train Station, reports of an explosion
Trains are running again after a fire broke out near Auckland’s Newmarket Station, closing a road and seeing buildings evacuated.
There were also reports of an explosion, with one resident saying she heard a “big bang”.
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Photos from the scene showed black smoke billowing across the suburb about 1.30pm.
Ricky Wilson/Stuff Police blocked off a large part of Remuera Rd following the fire.
Trains were running again about 3.40pm, but Newmarket Station remained closed, Auckland Transport said.
The Western, Southern and Eastern Line trains were all running as normal but were not stopping at the station.
The Onehunga Line trains would run between Penrose and Onehunga, not running to timetable, Auckland Transport said.
Auckland resident Georgina Fortes-Upoko was sitting in the courtyard of the Newmarket Train Station with her daughter when she heard an alarm sound just before 1.30 pm.
“Then we heard a big bang,” she said.
“We then saw all this smoke from the south side of the train station.”
Fortes-Upoko said 10 minutes later Fire and Emergency personnel told everyone in the courtyard to evacuate.
Police said about 2pm the fire had been extinguished.
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Smoke billows from a fire in Newmarket.
“Police are currently assisting [Fire and Emergency], and making inquiries into the matter,” a spokesperson said.
Fire and Emergency said a rubbish fire had broken out in the car park near the train station.
Four fire engines had been sent to the scene, as well as a “few” support vehicles.
A man working at YX Hair Salon said the fire was in a basement car park at Station Square.
Ricky Wilson/Stuff Police were on the scene.
Businesses had been evacuated.
He could not see flames, but there was black smoke “everywhere”, he said.
Aucklander Wendy Nicholson was driving on Remuera Rd heading for Westfield Mall when she saw thick plumes of smoke in the air, billowing across the road.
Inside the mall, the air was filled with a “plastic burning smell”.
“It was horrible, it wasn’t pleasant at all,” Nicholson said.
Ryan Anderson/Stuff Firefighters in Newmarket after a rubbish fire broke out in a car park.
“You could see people in the mall looking around not knowing if they should be there.”
It took barely 15 minutes before Nicholson decided to leave the mall, in case she was caught in a traffic jam.
A few hours later, her throat was scratchy and she was worried for the people she could see standing by the smoke.
“I hate to think what their throats would be feeling like.
It just felt toxic … and the mall is a few hundred metres away, but all the air was going through the mall and the car park.”
Auckland Transport said in a tweet at 2.15pm Newmarket Train Station was being evacuated.
“Please expect delays and cancellations on Western, Southern and Onehunga Lines as some trains are held on the track.”
A spokesperson said there had been “reports of an explosion” at a car park.
A KiwiRail spokesperson said rail services were paused because of visibility concerns, due to “smoke from a non-rail related fire”.
Ricky Wilson/Stuff
Police set up a road block on Remuera Rd and were stopping drivers from getting through for a time.
Part of Remuera Rd, between Broadway and St Marks Rd, had been closed, Auckland Transport said, but reopened at 4pm.
However, the intersection of Broadway and Remuera Rd remained closed to eastbound traffic.
Big crowds of people were gathering on the street to watch and traffic was queued up in the area.
Multiple business owners in the area said they had seen teenagers hanging out and smoking near some old furniture in the basement of the car park over the past few days.
References
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