Six fire engines and one aerial unit remain at the scene as firefighters continue to stamp out blazes in small pockets at Auckland's SkyCity convention centre, which has been burning since Tuesday.
Firefighters are currently in their “overhaul phase”, principal advisor fire risk management Mike Shaw said, with firefighters removing loose iron and roofing materials.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand is now working to reduce their cordons as the city centre returns to normal.
“We will be putting up a large crane on Nelson Street tomorrow morning, over the weekend, and we will hopefully have it out of here by Monday, so Tuesday’s back to normal," he said.
Road closures remain in place on Hobson Street. Nelson Street has since reopened, but has been reduced to one lane. One lane has also been opened up on Wellesley Street for bus traffic only.
“We’re allowing cars from the SkyCity main building access via Federal Street, but not from the centre.”
Mr Shaw added that there is "quite a lot of water in the basement, which we are releasing slowly".
Auckland Council Safeswim manager Nick Vigar said that while a toxicology report revealed that the water had some hydrocarbon contamination, he was confident it could be decontaminated.
Water from the basement was pumped into the stormwater network, before being switched over to the wastewater network from around 6.30 last night. It's expected to take “four to six days" before the water can be "pumped down".
“My advice to everyone in the waterfront CBD is to still treat it as still potentially hazardous," Mr Vigar said.
Fire services will be joined by a number of organisations and services as it enters its investigation phase, which will include fire risk managers as they investigate the cause behind the fire and its spread.
SHARE ME