SkyCity blaze: Firefighters back employees still suffering after inhaling toxic fumes

Dozens of SkyCity employees protested in Auckland last night in a bid to get any workplace illnesses following last month's fire recognised.

Fifty of the company's workers have fallen ill since the blaze with respiratory issues, vomiting, diarrhoea and sore eyes, according to Unite Union.

The under-construction International Convention Centre spectacularly went up in flames, blanketing the CBD in smoke. It took days to fully extinguish.

"Fifty  of our members have been ill as a direct result of inhaling smoke from the fire on October 22" said union organiser Joe Carolan. 

"In the last few days air quality specialists have confirmed that those exposed to the plume inhaled more than three years' worth of cancer-causing chemicals in a single day. Our members, and customers, were kept inside the casino complex with the air conditioning sucking in the smoke and recirculating it for hours.

"SkyCity has been trying to say it was safe and there was little risk. Now we know."

Auckland Council released air quality results from the blaze on Wednesday, showing there were elevated levels of black carbon, zinc and arsenic in the atmosphere.

A strike supporter outside SkyCity.
A strike supporter outside SkyCity. Photo credit: Joe Carolan/supplied

Workers picketed outside the SkyCity entrance on Federal St, with the backing of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters' Union.

Spokesperson Joanne Watson said SkyCity's response has not been good enough.

"Having the workplace decontaminated, it's not just a matter of standard cleaning - it would be a matter of having appropriate industrial cleaning and then testing of the air and surfaces again." 

She says it is an issue close to firefighters' hearts, and the symptoms union members are reporting are consistent with having been exposed to toxic smoke.

"Respiratory, sore eyes, vomiting, diarrhea - they recognise that that is the result of exposure to the smoke from the convention fire."

She says SkyCity should give their workers appropriate support for workplace illness and injury.

"We don't like to see any other workers unduly exposed to the toxins of smoke or ongoing contamination of their workplaces." 

SkyCity told Newshub on Friday the air was "rigorously monitored and met all regulatory standards", and dismissed the strike as having no impact on its business.