One of the Western Bay's largest timber plants was saved from a major fire last night as firefighters praise lucky timing and working sprinkler systems.
Te Puke firefighters were called to the Pukepine and Purepine timber plant on the main road about 11.30pm.
''It came in as an alarm activation at Pukepine Sawmills but when we got there there was actually a fire in the planer machine,'' Te Puke fire chief Glen Williams said.
The small fire had been prevented from spreading further thanks to the plant's sprinkler system. The fire had been smouldering, and left unattended could have easily grown larger and much more destructive, Mr Williams said.
''The sprinkler unit certainly proved its worth.''
However, Mr Williams said the shift was about 30 minutes from finishing for the night so it was fortunate the fire was detected before staff when home.
''It's a large building and an older building, packed with a lot of timber as well. If fire had been established, we would be looking at an extremely significant fire,'' Mr Williams said.
Te Puke firefighters spent ''quite a while'' at the scene, as the machine needed to be dismantled before firefighters could directly access the fire.