The alarm was raised just before 1.30pm. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
One person was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital in a serious condition suffering from smoke inhalation after a commercial building fire in Napier this afternoon.
Fire and Emergency said it received multiple alerts about the fire at The Pallet Company just before 1.30pm.
The fire was well-involved by the time crews arrived.
Senior station officer Jamie Nicol said the fire started in machinery.
"There's been a reasonable fire, the sprinkler system activated and that's held the fire to the area of origin and we've gone in and carried on extinguishing it. One the sprinkler had done its job and now we're just dampening down hot spots."
He said the commercial building was not too badly damaged.
"In the scope of things the size of the building, it's fairly minor. It's a decent part of machinery; they might be out of action for a little while but it's confined to the machine that was operating at the time," Nicol said.
Six fire trucks and 20 firefighters fought the blaze on Thames Street in the suburb of Pandora.
It was contained just after 2pm and three fire trucks plus a support vehicle remained onsite by mid-afternoon.
Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
