{"id":355155,"date":"2026-03-30T12:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355155\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:42:20","slug":"pipeline-with-cooling-oil-attacked-in-south-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355155\/","title":{"rendered":"Pipeline with cooling oil attacked in south Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emergency services are investigating after a pipe was vandalised, releasing an unknown substance into a nearby stream in south Auckland this morning. <\/p>\n

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson told 1News a “gentleman” called emergency services after smelling fuel in the vicinity of the U-Go on Great South Rd. <\/p>\n

Counties Manukau Crime Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Michele Gillespie said police were made aware of a potential gas leak at a service station on Great South Rd around 6.30am. <\/p>\n

“Upon arrival, it was determined a pipe carrying cooling oil belonging to a lines company had been damaged,” he said. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“Police do not believe the pipe is connected to the nearby service stations.” <\/p>\n

Gillespie said police were speaking with two people as part of inquiries.<\/p>\n

Anyone with additional information was urged to contact police online, by calling 105, or anonymously via Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111. <\/p>\n

Earlier, Counties Manukau District Assistant Commander Chris Delfos said two Fire and Emergency trucks were sent from Papakura and Manurewa and, on arrival, found a pipe had been vandalised. <\/p>\n

1News footage from the scene in Manurewa showed emergency services attending to a “vandalised” fuel pipe near the U-Go petrol station. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Delfos said, after further investigation, FENZ discovered it was a power cable with fuel insulation \u2013 described as “a diesel-looking line” \u2013 that had been deliberately cut. <\/p>\n

He said that it was “possible” someone cut the wrong line, which could also possibly have been linked to a telephone line which was cut around 3am this morning. <\/p>\n

Delfos said firefighters were working to contain whatever substance was leaking into the stream, as it was currently leaking onto a grass patch that flowed into the water.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency raised a second alarm to dispatch more trucks and a hazmat team to decant the leak which was spilling into water. <\/p>\n

1News footage from the scene showed firefighters cordoning off a bridge above a stream, as the substance seeped from the pipe. <\/p>\n

‘Some kind of sabotage’ <\/p>\n

\"FENZ<\/p>\n

FENZ Counties Manukau District Assistant Commander Chris Delfos. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Earlier, Chris Delfos said crews arrived to find “some kind of sabotage” to the pipeline which travelled under a bridge on Great South Rd. <\/p>\n

He said firefighters initially suspected this fuel to be diesel. <\/p>\n

“At this stage, we don’t know where the line comes from, or where it’s going to, so we’re in the process of trying to stem the diesel flow and stop it going into the waterways,” he said. <\/p>\n

Delfos said diesel was not as flammable as petrol, but it was still “very, very dangerous” to cut into any type of fuel line. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

\u201cI know things are tight in the fuel industry at the moment, and people are paying a lot of money, but it\u2019s not worth your life \u2013 so don\u2019t do it.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said crews were trying to capture the leak and figure out where it was going to. <\/p>\n

Delfos added: “There may be some minor environmental issues” in relation to the sabotage. <\/p>\n

“Of course, it has been leaking into the river, but we\u2019re capturing about 90% of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

Emergency services at the scene near U-Go in Manurewa. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

‘A bit scary’ \u2013 petrol station worker <\/p>\n

Hardeep from nearby Gull Night ‘n Day in Takanini said they were called around 7.30am today to “help check the pipeline”. <\/p>\n

In a statement, Gull Takanini said the pipeline issue on the overbridge “did not affect the Gull Takanini site at all”. <\/p>\n

“They were asking if there was any leakage or any pipe connected\u2026 so I showed them the logs and the plans to make sure everything was OK,” they told 1News. <\/p>\n

“It was a bit scary at first\u2026 just not knowing what was happening and why they were asking all those questions.”<\/p>\n

Hardeep said the Gull Night ‘n Day remained open this morning. <\/p>\n

A Z Energy spokesperson said the incident was not connect to its U-GO outlet. “This incident is not related to Z Energy and took place next to our U\u2011GO Manurewa site. Fire and Emergency New\u202fZealand is managing the response, so we are unable to provide further comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny told 1News in a statement that they were “closely watching for any trends around fuel theft and associated offences”.<\/p>\n

“At this stage, it is too early to determine any notable change in offending,” .<\/p>\n

“Police will remain visible in our communities and will respond to any incidents as they arise.”<\/p>\n

Penny also said police were taking advice from the Ministry of Business, Immigration and Employment around the global fuel shortage.<\/p>\n

“Under the National Fuel Plan, there are arrangements to prioritise supply to emergency services to maintain essential operations, and we will continue to monitor any impacts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emergency services are investigating after a pipe was vandalised, releasing an unknown substance into a nearby stream in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-355155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-auckland","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}