Firefighters rushed to Kuripuni from far and wide after a fire broke out in the roof space of a retail store.
The smoke erupting from the Queen St building could be seen from as far away as Lansdowne last night.
A Fire and Emergency [Fenz] spokesperson said firefighters responded to the blaze at a single-storey store after being alerted to smoke billowing from the building at 5.47pm.
“Five trucks are in attendance at the blaze as of 6.35pm.”
Fenz said firefighters fought the fire from both inside the building and from the roof and had brought it under control by 6.40pm.
Fenz Wairarapa group manager Craig Cottrill said brigades from across the region were still tackling the fire at 7pm.
At 7.30pm five fire trucks were still at the scene, three from Masterton and two from Carterton, and an aerial unit – a truck with a tall cherry-picker-like ladder – was on its way from Avalon in Lower Hutt.
Cottrill said firefighters would remain at the scene for a “number of hours”.
“The fire, as far as I’m aware, has been in the roof at the moment; there is no additional information regarding how much the building has been affected by the fire.”
He said the building was not occupied at the time, and said there were no reports of injuries.
Cottrill said the cause of the fire was unknown: “A fire investigator will be attending the scene tonight, and they will begin trying to determine the cause of the fire.”
He said the blaze was not being treated as suspicious at this stage.
A police spokesperson said police were called to the Queen St scene for traffic management at 5.50pm and established a cordon at the intersection with Crayne St.
