Workers were evacuated from a metal factory in Petone after a large fire broke out on Thursday morning.
Nine fire crews were sent to scrapyard Macaulay Metals shortly before 7am, and a number of businesses in the area were evacuated due to massive plumes of smoke that could be seen across Wellington Harbour.
There were no injuries and there didn't appear to be any serious damage to plant equipment.
Owner of Macaulay Metals Jeff Harris told Newshub the Seaview fire started in a stockpile of products in the yard.
"No one was hurt and it doesn't appear there's any damage to plant equipment in the yard," he said.
While investigations are still underway, he said he’d be surprised if the fire came from refrigeration units - which are de-gassed by a specialist before being crushed and baled up for the shredder.
Mr Harris said it was likely it was caused by a lithium battery "arcing or sparking".
"One issue with recycling old vehicles is that cars are not being cleaned out and sometimes contain lithium batteries off things like power tools," he said.
"Consumer goods are becoming more risky and we're having to do more and more inspections because of it," Mr Harris said. "We've even found CNG tanks in cars."
Macaulay Metals handles anything that's metal, from demolitions to recycling.
Mr Harris said the yard has processed and recovered all the metal from everything that came out of earthquake-damaged Queensgate in Lower Hutt, Wellington's Reading carpark, buildings on Molesworth Street and Statistics House.
Next week it's scheduled to export 20,000 tonnes of recycled steel, bound for Hyundai Steel in South Korea.
Newshub.
