FELICITY ROSS
The Daily News

"This is my worst nightmare."

Lepperton poultry farm owner Neville Wells could only watch in horror as his new chicken shed burnt to the ground yesterday.

Two firefighters remain in hospital after being caught in a flashover while battling the large blaze.

A 34-year-old suffered serious injuries with burns to his back and arms while a 31-year-old was left with moderate injuries and also suffered burns to his back and arms. New Plymouth fire officer Hamish Smith said the two injured men were caught in a "flashover".

"It is a spontaneous ignition of combustible materials in the building and they were caught in that," Mr Smith said.

He said other fire officers were supporting the families of the injured men.

More than 85 firefighters from all over North Taranaki fought the blaze which has destroyed Mr Wells' 100-metre long chicken shed.

"I am so grateful there was no livestock in the shed," said Mr Wells.

He was expecting a delivery of 20,000 chickens to be housed in the burnt shed today.

The fire started at about 4.30pm, with fire officers trying to put it out throughout the night.

Mr Wells believes the fire started from one of the gas heaters he was using to heat up the shed for the chickens.

"It must have self-imploded," he said.

"There were flames coming out 30 metres off the shed. There were just flames and thick black smoke."

"I'm just thankful there were no tears and no chickens inside that building.

"This is my worst nightmare."

Mr Wells, a third generation chicken farmer, said it is common practice to heat up his sheds for the chickens before they arrived.

"I noticed smoke pouring out of the vents and then the alarm went off.

"The shed is totally gone. The firefighters took water out of the swimming pool and all of the tanks and they still needed more."

Mr Smith said firefighters were battling the blaze after 9pm last night and could not confirm what had started it.

"It is a very difficult building to extinguish and because we are in a rural area it has taken a long period of time to get the water," he said.

A force of 85 firefighters was unusual but necessary due to the exceptional circumstances of the blaze.

"It's a large industrial building so the size of the building and the physical nature of fire fighting to extinguish it."

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October 14, 2010