The peaceful town of Lumsden was disturbed late Thursday night with what sounded at first like fireworks around 10.30pm.

Several locals headed to a safe viewing point to check out what turned out to be an extensive fire in the Northern Southland Transport yard.  

Local resident, Ms Ash Brewer said, after hearing the siren that she initially thought it was an empty section down the road but then the bangs started.

“I was very worried.”

“They were like deep loud fireworks going off without the colourful sparkle at the end,” Brewer said.

Another local couple, Dr David and Mrs Jill Stockton had headed down to have a look at what was going on.

“It was the most intense fire either of us had seen in person. It had a real feel of danger and it was amazing to see the firefighters up close,” Dr Stockton said.

“We heard explosions at first and thought they were fireworks but way too powerful. The flames were at least 80 feet [25 metres] high at times.” 

Firefighters from Lumsden, Balfour, Mossburn, Riversdale, and Dipton originally attended the fire and were joined later by Winton and Invercargill who brought their Aerial appliance.

Chief Fire Officer, Nathan Middlemiss said that it is the first time the Aerial appliance has had to attend a fire in Lumsden.

Middlemiss has been involved in the Lumsden Brigade for 31 years and said this would probably be the biggest fire that the town has experienced in that time.

“There have been other house fires but this was on a different scale.”

It was the observations of Stevie Perry, one of the local firefighters and his fiance, Zoe McCormick who sounded the alarm.

“Zoe and I were on our way home from my parents."

"We were doing a lap around town when Zoe pointed out the black smoke."

"We drove in and had a quick look and dialled 111.” Perry said.

This would have bought valuable time. The fire was not fully underway at this stage, so firefighters were able to enter the bay using Breathing Apparatus and rescue three of the trucks.

It is not yet known if these trucks were completely undamaged.

The fire was so intense that the nearby office building had windows blow out and a ute parked next to it had the front bumper completely melted.

An early concern was whether the town supply would be sufficient to put out the fire so other ways of getting water were looked at.

The local pool was considered as a good source of water and a pump was set up ready just in case.

Fortunately the local supply was sufficient and the water from the pool wasn’t needed.

Hoses were run from fire hydrants at the bottom of Helena Street and the top of Pluto Road. Both of these hydrants required several lengths of hosing and the appliances to pump the water as well in order to have the pressure required.  

Firefighters were impressed with two local teenagers, Andrew Graham (16) and Benjamin Rodgers-Foran (15) who helped get the pool ready should it be needed, running hoses and shifting traffic cones.

Both boys enjoyed being able to help out in a practical way and may even consider joining up as volunteers in the future.

Northern Southland Transport (NSTH) Rural Manager Brett Gilmour said that it was too early to be able to say exactly what the damage was.

The Southland App believes that three fertiliser Bulkies, a ute, a couple of trailers and a loader were lost, however damage to the vehicles that were rescued, before the fire took hold, was still being assessed.

Gilmour said it was fortunate that they could call on other trucks within the company to help.

“But it is definitely going to cause some disruptions," he said.

"The important thing is that nobody was on site and nobody was hurt”.

Gilmour said they were currently working with FENZ (Fire and Emergency New Zealand) and the police to determine the exact cause and damage.

It was a long night for the fire crews with some not getting home until 4.30 on Friday morning.

Northern Southland Transport is a really important local business with several of the firefighters working there or with family who work there. 

Chief Fire Officer Middlemiss was pleased with the outcome “it was a great effort from all there to save what we saved”

FENZ were alerted to the Lumsden fire at 10.31pm last night (28 Dec) with crews from Lumsden and Balfour initially responding.

They were however quickly joined by fire crews and water tankers from Lumsden, Balfour, Mossburn and Dipton, and a command unit from the Invercargill.

A FENZ spokesperson said the building had been extensively damaged.

A fire investigator is currently at the scene to investigate the cause of the blaze.