Update on Fire at Sanford Timaru Cold Store

13 May 2013

Update on Fire at Sanford Timaru Cold Store

An inspection of Sanford’s cold store at North Mole, Timaru, this morning has revealed major damage to the environmental load out area and the front portion of the coldstore following a fire yesterday afternoon.

The fire broke out at approximately 4pm. No employees were on site at the time of the fire, which was extinguished last night.

Sanford’s fish processing plant is on a separate site and not affected.

Managing Director Eric Barratt today inspected the site and says “I have visited the site today and can confirm the damage to the coldstore is extensive. While Sanford is fully insured for any damage to both plant and product we will be doing a full assessment on the 1,300 metric tonnes of frozen product to determine whether there can be any recovery.”

“Our fish processing plant is on a separate site and is not affected and there will be no impact on jobs. Until the cool store is back up and running we will use other Sanford and external facilities in the area” he says.

“We have received a number of offers of assistance from other seafood and coldstore companies and we will be accepting some of those offers. At times like this it is pleasing to receive these unsolicited offers of assistance”.

Investigations have begun into the cause of the fire but it appears the fire started in an electrical switchboard. Thorough inspections of the site today have confirmed it is safe for investigations into the cause to be undertaken.

Sanford would like to thank the Timaru Fire Service for their work to quickly bring the fire under control last night.

ENDS

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