Blaze hits factory
PA Auckland Firemen last evening battled a blaze at an Avondale foam factory. The police cordoned the entire Rosebank Road industrial area. People from 12 neighbouring factories and a house were moved from the area. Toxic fumes drifting from the blazing Vitafoam, Ltd, factory, prompted traffic officers to close the North-Western Motorway between Point
Chevalier and Te Atatu. Ambulances took eight factory workers to Auckland Hospital with nausea, headaches and sore throats caused by the fumes. More than 80 firemen wearing breathing apparatus battled to save the factory, which was nearly gutted in April, 1980. The flames spread so quickly that one of the escaping workers saw his car go up in flames before
he had a chance to shift it.
A worker in a factory opposite Vitafoam said he heard loud explosions “like drums exploding.” The technical manager for Vita New Zealand, Ltd, Mr Kevin McDermott, said a number of safeguards had been taken after the 1980 fire which broke out in a storage area.
His company runs Vitafoam, Ltd, which makes polyurethane foam, as one of three divisions
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Press, 12 November 1985, Page 8
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183Blaze hits factory Press, 12 November 1985, Page 8
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