Emergency services at Wellington Airport after a fire broke out.
Photo: Supplied
Flights into Wellington have been temporarily diverted after the main terminal building at the airport was evacuated on Friday night.
Wellington Airport said the southwest pier and main terminal building were evacuated after a smoke alarm was triggered.
“No-one is reported to be hurt and emergency services including FENZ and Airport Fire Service are on site.”
In a statement the airport said passengers were being advised to check with their airlines for information on specific flights.
“We will provide further updates tonight as they come to hand.”
Fire and Emergency said they received a call through the automated alarm at 7:15pm, which was responded to by the Wellington Fire Brigade and the Wellington Airport Fire Brigade.
People evacuated from the airport wait in the car park.
Photo: Supplied / RNZ
A spokesperson confirmed there were a total of nine trucks at the scene.
“It’s been escalated to a second alarm level. Now they’ve reported it being a piece of machinery on fire.
“It has activated a sprinkler system as well.”
They could not confirm if it was inside or outside the building.
‘It was chaos’
One woman waiting in the airport said it appeared the roof over the departure gate area was on fire.
She was just about to board Air New Zealand flight NZ377 to Christchurch when passengers who had already boarded started to be evacuated from the plane.
Photo: Supplied / RNZ
“It was chaos. Gate staff appeared confused and instructions were not provided for about 10 minutes”.
“You could see smoke and smell it. We are now being evacuated out of the terminal. It’s a total mess.”
Alex, who was waiting to catch a plane to Nelson, said he was in one of the Koru lounges and an alarm went off saying the terminal was “on standby” and people should stay where they were.
He said that lasted for about 20 minutes and then staff came and evacuated them.
He said staff told him the fire started at the other Koru lounge.
“We could see quite a lot of smoke … and we could definitely smell it.
“There was smoke coming out of the building.”
National MP Tim Costley posted this photo to social media.
Photo: Facebook / Tim Costley
Alex said the staff were pretty relaxed where he was, and he wasn’t too scared because he knew that he was safe.
He has now headed home, and will wait to hear when he can fly.
Mike Keen said he’d checked in for his flight and was waiting to board.
“All of a sudden there was these really loud sirens going off and a voice saying ‘this area is on hold, stay where you are’.
“Everyone could see the … smoke [out the window] and the fire crews and whatnot.”
He said the smoke was coming from a roof section near the security section.
Keen said he was supposed to be heading to Auckland to get a flight to Britain.
More to come…
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