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Kavinda Herath/Stuff
About 8000 tonnes of PKE was tored inside the depot.
Spontaneous combustion of palm kernel extract (PKE) is the cause of a massive fire at an Invercargill freight depot, a fire investigator says.
But a separate investigation is under way to determine how and why the substance, which is used to feed stock, caught fire, Fire and Emergency NZ fire investigator Murray Milne-Maresca said.
The fire broke out at the Freight Haulage depot, which is owned by HW Richardson Group, on March 9.
At its peak, 40 firefighters and nine fire trucks fought the fire. No injuries were reported.
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After a week-long investigation he said his finding into the cause of the fire was the PKE stored inside the facility spontaneously combusted.
“It’s called an exothermic reaction when you get heat and moisture and it mixes with oxygen,’’ he said.
About 8000 tonnes of PKE had been stored in the building and it was now being moved and dumped at an area approved by the Ministry of Primary industries, he said.
Robyn Edie
Specialist Fire Investigator Murray Milne-Maresca says the building is severely damaged.
Neighbours near the site had reported odour issues to Environment Southland the day before the fire, and Milne-Maresca said it was ‘’very possible’’ those odours had been caused by the PKE heating.
Environment Southland resource management manager Donna Ferguson told Stuff last week regional council staff visited the site and confirmed an odour, which they believed was from the stored palm kernel.
An abatement notice was issued to Freight Haulage on March 9, the same day the fire started.
Milne-Maresca said the building was ‘’severely damaged’’ and insurance assessors were working on their own investigation.
Smoke rises over Invercargill from a fire at a storage facility.
He urged anyone storing PKE to let FENZ know ‘’so they know what they’re dealing with if there’s a fire,’’ he said.
HW Richardson group has been approached for comment.
Environment Southland is warning people not to fish, collect shellfish or have contact with the New River Estuary after the fire.
Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Plumes of smoke from the fire can be seen billowing into the sky. (File photo)
The Vero Insurance website says palm kernel stored in bulk piles is susceptible to spontaneous heating, and eventually combustion, if not handled properly.
Spontaneous heating is caused by a chemical reaction called oxidation, which leads to palm kernel heating up.
If this heat is not dispersed the palm kernel will eventually catch fire.
Each year, New Zealand imports about 2 million tons of PKE, a by-product of palm-oil processing in Indonesia and Malaysia, to feed dairy cows, at a cost of $800m.
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