Two workers at a Christchurch freight company were decontaminated after a chemical fire broke out at a warehouse in Wigram on Monday night.
The blaze initially broke out on a truck parked inside the Daily Freight depot on McAlpine St, Wigram, at about 8.20pm, a fire department spokesman told the Press, New Zealand.
The fire spread from the truck to the depot and both fires were brought under control quickly, the spokesperson said.
However, the callout escalated when officers realised there were chemicals stored in the building where the truck and depot had caught fire, the fire department representative told the Press.
Assistant area fire commander Dave Burford said the depot had been "fully operational" at the time the fire broke out, but no one had been injured.
The depot, along with a neighbouring factory, had been evacuated, and two workers had been decontaminated "as a precaution", he said.
The fire had punctured plastic containers storing about 2,000 litres of boron, a chemical used to treat timber, Burford told the Press.
"It's dangerous in bulk like that. People should stand about 20 metres away ... when it's in concentrated forms," he explained.
Good ventilation inside the depot had helped clear fumes quickly, and firefighters had blocked drains to ensure the chemical did not spill into the waterway.
Officers remained at the scene on Monday night keeping watch, and the area was cordoned off until about 6am on Tuesday.
No one was injured in the fire.
Image: Firerighters at the Wigram blaze. Source: TV NZ