Police say a fire at the University of Auckland’s Law School on Thursday afternoon was not suspicious.
Hundreds of students were evacuated from the central city campus building during the incident.
Auckland Central’s senior station officer Michael Manning told RNZ that Fire and Emergency received a report of a fire in an office at the University of Auckland on Short Street around 2.40pm.
Manning said there was a well-involved fire on the second level, and some people were unaccounted for on the seventh level.
Fire and Emergency escalated the response to the third alarm, which brought in 12 to 15 crew, including a high-reach aerial.
Two people were later found on the roof.
“We had a heavy smoke condition on level two, and the smoke was extending through the building up to level three,” Manning said.
A specialist fire investigator was on the scene, Manning added.
“We’ve got quite a bit of water up on that level now, so we’re doing some salvage of the critical infrastructure for the university. They’ll be bringing some commercial cleaners in as well. We are ventilating the building of the acrid smoke. We’ve got gas detectors up there measuring those levels as well.
“So once that has been taken care of, and the fire investigator is finished, we’ll be looking to hand over the building, but we’ll have a presence here for probably the next hour or two.”
No injuries were reported.
Student Pranuja Tahal estimated she was one of 200 to 300 students who were evacuated.
Another student, Talisha Lal, said that she was on the fourth level – waiting for her art history tutorial – when an alarm went off.
While her friend Katelyn Bouavong was taking a nap at the time.
University of Auckland students Talisha Lal (left) and Katelyn Bouavong (right).
Photo: Marika Khabazi/RNZ
“I was fast asleep – woke up – ‘Everyone get out!'”
“It was very abrupt,” Lal added.
“It was like orderly fashion, we were like maybe it’s a drill, or something like that.
“Everyone was really calm on the floor that we were on. We were all just taking – not really taking our time, but we weren’t really making haste.”
Lal said there was a woman standing on the footpath with a clipboard.
“She was very frantic. She goes, ‘It’s not a drill, please, we need you to get out of the building. It’s a real fire, we need you to come out.'”
“I guess that’s when it hit us, this isn’t a drill.”
Lal said she saw smoke coming out of the front door.
“It wasn’t anything too drastic. Imagine a campfire, kind of. It was just smoke like that. It was coming from inside the building.”
Lal and Bouavong remained on the street to find out what happened, and to make sure everyone was okay.
A University of Auckland spokesperson said it was pleased with the response to the fire.
“The University has been advised by FENZ that its evacuation plan and building systems worked well, leading to the safe evacuation of everyone from B810 at the Law School.
“The fire is not deemed suspicious and is believed to have started in a light fitting. Sprinklers have caused water damage to the second floor, which will be unavailable for some time. “
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