{"id":15408,"date":"2025-10-22T05:21:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15408"},"modified":"2025-10-22T05:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:21:35","slug":"cause-of-whangarei-hospital-car-park-fire-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15408","title":{"rendered":"Cause of Whang\u0101rei Hospital car park fire revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The blaze that damaged dozens of cars in a Whangarei Hospital carpark this afternoon is believed to have been caused by a hot exhaust pipe that ignited long grass nearby.<\/p>\n

Fire investigator Jason Goffin said CCTV footage appeared to confirm that.<\/p>\n

He said a vehicle had parked near long grass and the hot exhaust pipe appeared to have ignited a fire which spread along a row of parked cars in the strong wind.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the blaze shows the grassy berm that bordered the car parks.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Susan Edmunds<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) said the fire has now been contained and they were now dampening down hotspots.<\/p>\n

FENZ said they were called to the scene around 2pm and have found both cars and vegetation on fire.<\/p>\n

Five fire trucks and about 20 firefighters tackled the blaze, with brigades coming from Onetangi, Portland, Kamo and Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

FENZ said about 28 cars have been damaged, but could not confirm how many were destroyed.<\/p>\n

A doctor at the hospital said flames and thick black smoke could be seen coming from the cars.<\/p>\n

She said the fire is well away from the clinical area of the hospital.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The aftermath of the fire at the Whang\u0101rei Hospital car park.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ \/ Peter de Graaf<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Janine Cubitt, who was visiting and watching from the fifth floor of a hospital building, said she saw the fire spreading across the vehicles.<\/p>\n

“Saw it moving along, started off with two cars, then moved along, there’s gotta be at least 12 to 15 cars involved in it,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A fire in a Whang\u0101rei Hospital carpark has damaged as least 28 cars.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Susan Edmunds<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

She said she could hear loud popping sounds, and could see things coming out of cars windows and flying up in the air.<\/p>\n

Cubitt said there had been a couple of cars that had their fires put out, but later recaught fire.<\/p>\n

Health NZ said the hospital remained open and there were no reports of injuries.<\/p>\n

Spokesperson Alex Pimm said they were working with emergency services to ensure staff and patient safety.<\/p>\n

The affected car park holds about 200 staff vehicles, and people have been unable to enter to retrieve their cars.<\/p>\n

Pimm said staff have been offered transportation home.<\/p>\n

RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The blaze that damaged dozens of cars in a Whangarei Hospital carpark this afternoon is believed to have been caused by a hot exhaust pipe that ignited long grass nearby. Fire investigator Jason Goffin said CCTV footage appeared to confirm that. He said a vehicle had parked near long grass and the hot exhaust pipe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15410,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15408\/revisions\/15410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}