Fire engines raced all over South Auckland for about 90 minutes during a violent electrical storm this morning, including to a blaze in a shed in Māngere that's being blamed on a lightning strike.
Papatoetoe fire station senior station officer Terry Jenner told 1 NEWS at the scene of the fire in Heyford Place, Māngere, they received multiple calls to what was assumed to be a house on fire, but upon arrival found a shed at the back of the property ablaze.
"The shed was fully locked and hasn't been occupied for approximately six to seven days. And with the nature of the weather we've had this morning, the severity of the lightning, everything at this stage is pointing towards the lightning strike actually causing the fire," Mr Jenner said.
"The shed has been very much destroyed. It was used for storage, so it's one of the lucky ones where there's been no sleeping accommodation. So we're quite happy with the result," he said.
The lightning had been going on for several hours this morning and Fire and Emergency New Zealand was in "multiple incident procedure," Mr Jenner said.
"So we've had fire engines racing all around South Auckland for about the last hour and a half. And there's been severe lightning strikes in this area."
Another fire reported was at the premises of Autoguru NZ on Church St, Onehunga, where firefighters were called at 10.33am.
They were called at the same time to a house fire on Brookby Rd, Clevedon, in which one person was injured.
Fire and Emergency believe an exploding generator may have caused that fire.
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