Fire and Emergency says the investigation into a blaze at a central Auckland supermarket will include the building's sprinkler system.
Five fire and emergency crews stayed overnight at the scene of the blaze which severely damaged the supermarket in central Auckland on Tuesday.
Firefighters were at the New World Victoria Park supermarket from about 11.15am on Tuesday and remained overnight to deal with hotspots and to ensure the perimeter of the site was secure.
Foodstuffs says the fire started in an area of the supermarket that was being rebuilt but its cause was not yet known.
Assistant Commander Phil Larcombe told Morning Report investigators would be taking a close look at the supermarket's sprinkler system, which was working at the time, and likely overtaken by the size of the fire.
He said it was too early to say what caused the blaze and a fire investigator was on site.
Larcombe said Fire and Emergency would probably maintain a presence throughout the day. Victoria Street remained closed to westbound traffic from the bottom of Franklin to College Hill roads.
He said crews would look to remove about a dozen vehicles still in the supermarket's underground car park on Wednesday morning.
The damaged supermarket after the fire on Tuesday. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Speaking from the scene on Wednesday, Larcombe told reporters the inside of the building "wasn't looking any better", but it would be up to insurers to determine whether the building was a write-off.
He confirmed a back room where construction was taking place was a focus of the fire investigation, among other areas.
He said no hazardous materials had been found and there were no long-term concerns from smoke pollution.
Larcombe said Fire and Emergency aimed to "scale back" their presence on the main road as soon as possible to ease traffic congestion.
Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin told Morning Report New World staff were the priority.
"It's very early days at this point. The most important thing we've been focused on right now is looking after our team.
"And writing as many possible plans as we can for what could happen from here."
Stressing that he was no expert, he said the fire appeared to be full on and had spread extensively in a "pretty complicated building".
Regarding the cause of the blaze, Quin said he knew it had started in an area that was undergoing renovation, but nothing more, and the cause was in some part immaterial.
"It's really important that we get the facts and have experts assess what might have caused this.
"[It] won't really affect what we do next, because we've got to assess how badly damaged the building is and then work out what is our quickest way possible to get back to serving that community."
He said the renovation "was a very big investment" involving a refurburbishment and expansion across several different projects.
Quin said it was too early to speculate on a timeframe for re-opening but noted the response by Fire and Emergency was extensive.
'Very sad'
Residents nearby said the fire was a blow to their community.
David Alsop, who lives in an apartment building which over looks the supermarket, said he felt devastated for the staff who he would see nearly on a daily basis.
"It's like our pantry," he said.
"It is absolutely devastating, you see the staff who you see pretty much every day and to see how this affected them and all the people that are connected to it."
"The practical consequence of us having to go further (for groceries), that pales in significance for all the trauma that must be going on for all the staff and people, it's very very sad," he said.
Alsop first became aware of the fire while working at his business, Suite Gallery on Ponsonby Road, which is less than a kilometre away from the New World and his apartment.
He said the first sign of trouble was his Whatsapp apartment block group chat becoming inundated with messages from concerned residents.
"I went outside in the first instance and could just smell the terrible smell that was billowing up the hill at that point and thought to go down Franklin Road but police blocks were already in place.
"There was a huge amount of smoke, I didn't come back down the hill for a couple of hours as I wanted to keep out of the way of emergency services."
"I eventually came back down with a face mask, it was pretty toxic," Alsop said.
The art gallery owner said he feared the worst seeing the scale of the fire and the proximity to his home.
"It was quite panicky and distressing but with internet and things being posted so quickly in our whatsapp group, it was reassuring from that point of view that [the] worst was just going to be a bit of smoke smell, which is nothing."
"The wind direction was incredibly favourable for us in that the wind went up the hill, not so lucky were the people in Freemans Bay and Scotland Street that would have been really ghastly," Alsop said.
He said while residents had not been asked to contemplate evacuating, some including himself had prepared for it should they have needed to.
Aucklanders making their way into the central city on Wednesday morning stopped to survey the damage. Many were regular shoppers at the store.
"It's a large supermarket and it's going to be quite inconvenient for a number of people for it not to be available for a period of time," one person said.
Another passerby raised concerns about how long the supermarket would be closed for, while one said she knew it was having an impact on nearby workplaces.
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