Matakana village suffered another serious fire recently when the Matakana Sawmill had a fire in a large wooden shed in the middle of the afternoon. The shed contained much of the company’s woodworking machinery. Initial reports suggested the fire was caused by a spark when a saw blade hit a nail while milling a slab of timber.
The fire quickly spread and was well ablaze by the time fire crews arrived. The building was totally destroyed. Fire crews attended from Warkworth, Matakana, Mahurangi East and Leigh. They were backed up by water tankers from Matakana and Mahurangi East, as well as a number of support vehicles from further afield. Crews used portable pumps to pump water from a nearby creek to supplement water supplies.
Although this building was lost, crews worked hard to save nearby buildings that were under serious threat of catching alight. One Warkworth firefighter suffered minor burns to his hands when he bravely put himself in a position close enough to apply water to a nearby building that was being scorched by flames and also in danger of catching fire. The heat from the fire was intense, not helped by the heat of a hot summer day.
A large digger was brought in to overturn the debris to allow crews to damp down hotspots. It was several hours before crews departed the scene. It was an extremely demanding and taxing day for all staff involved. Well done to them all!
What the blaze showed is how fast a fire can spread given the right conditions, which include three elements – fuel, oxygen and heat.These are commonly referred to as the fire triangle. When all three exist in abundance, as they did on this occasion, then you have a fire that burns fiercely, and is extremely difficult to bring under control and put out. The building was an old, dry wooden structure that contained further fuel with quantities of timber. As such, this was perfect fuel for the flames to thrive. The building had plenty of ventilation allowing air to flow freely through the building and feed the fire. Once the fire took hold it spread rapidly and as said, the heat was intense.
