• Fire and Emergency NZ responded to a fire on the 16th floor of a Wakefield St building.
• Fifteen fire trucks and resources from Hamilton are attending the scene.
• A nearby cafe manager reported no visible smoke or flames, with construction workers outside.

A fire has broken out on an upper floor of a property under construction in central Auckland.

Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Paul Radden said there was a fire on the 16th floor of a property under construction on Wakefield St this afternoon.

There are 15 fire engines in attendance, and resources from Hamilton are bringing in an aerial appliance.

The building is approximately 20 by 20m and the fire was on the 16th floor, he said.

Senior Station Officer Martin Campbell said the fire began in the plant room but the cause had not yet been confirmed by a specialist fire investigator.

Campbell said the fire was on the roof and top floor of the building and there were “heavy smoke conditions” for firefighters.

The fire had not spread beyond these areas and had been successfully extinguished, he said.

The damage to the building was contained to these areas.

“Nobody was in the building at the time,all the construction workers had evacuated,” Campbell said.

It was looking like a “potential accidental fire” from the processes of construction work, Campbell said.

A nearby cafe manager said there were two fire engines outside a construction site next to the library and “lots of construction workers standing outside”. There was “no smoke and flames” she could see.

RNZ reported that Wakefield Street is closed between Mayoral Drive and Queen St.

Rutland Street is closed between Queen Street and Lorne Street.

The fire is understood to be at 2/14 Wakefield St, the site of Auckland’s second-largest commercial building project by global fund PAG, known as Wakefield Place, according to a list released this week by CBRE.

More to come ...