At least four workers at the toxic chemicals site in Mapua could have been made sick from working on the cleanup and they may suffer further work-related health problems, a report has revealed.

The Environment Ministry, as the main resource consent holders of the project, has accepted the report, and says it is taking steps to offer workers medical assessments.

The controversial $12 million cleanup finished five years ago and the four workers interviewed in the report have been waiting four years for acknowledgement of their health issues.

The Environment Ministry is also taking steps to contact others who worked at the site, previously considered New Zealand's most toxic, and offer them health checks. Thirty people are believed to have worked at the project.

Two students were taken to Christchurch Hospital after an explosion at Canterbury University.

Police, St John and the Fire Service rushed to the University of Canterbury's Rutherford building after reports of a "small explosion" at 12.36pm, a Fire Service spokesman said.

Science vice-chancellor Professor Paul Fleming said a male research student was working in a laboratory on the sixth floor of the Rutherford building when a flask exploded.

"He has some injuries to his hand," he said.

A female student in the lab suffered neck injuries.

A St John spokesman said the two students were taken to Christchurch Hospital with minor injuries.
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Burford did not know what type of chemical was involved, but there was no risk to people in the area.

The demolition of the former Canterbury Brewery had to be suspended on Wednesday after a small chemical fire.
The fire was caused by chemicals being taken from the site mixing with nitrous oxide in the bottom of the tank being used to transport the waste.
Workers at the site were evacuated while the fire was brought under control.

A no-go zone has been set up at Lyttelton port after a major chemical spill from a container on-board a vessel.

Christchurch firefighters were called about 7.30am to help decontaminate the vessel berthed at Lyttelton Port.

The port said the fire brigade and harbour master were this afternoon co-coordinating the cleanup of the "class 8 hazardous substance" on the vessel.

However, they have not said what the substance was, nor named the vessel. The Ministry for the Environment defines a class 8 substance as "corrosive".

A statement from the port's operations manager Paul Monk said the container had now been removed was now in a washbay for further cleanup.

A fire in a West Auckland apartment this morning started with a vapour explosion caused by chemicals used to make drugs.

Three people were injured in the fire which destroyed the Hobsonville Rd property.

The house is thought to have been a "reasonably extensive" P-lab.

One man is in Middlemore Hospital with serious burns while two others were taken to Waitakere Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, St John ambulance said.

ire crews and the regional council were called to a Branxholme farm yesterday after a drum containing a chemical once used in warfare was punctured by a digger.

Fire Service Invercargill senior station officer Alan Goldsworthy said the New Zealand Army would be coming to clear the site of contamination today.

Fire crews from Invercargill and Wallacetown had joined a Hazmat appliance on the farm at 2pm yesterday wearing level 4, fully protected suits to approach the chemicals, after they were informed of the incident by Environment Southland.

Mr Goldsworthy said level 4 suits were used when chemicals were giving off a gas or a vapour.

Environment Southland compliance manager Mark Hunter said at least five drums containing chloropicrin had been found buried on the property on Monday.

A digger had punctured one of the drums and a person had been taken to hospital suffering the effects of exposure to the chemical, Mr Hunter said.

Spontaneous combustion of an oiled cloth used for home renovations was the cause of a house fire in South Auckland yesterday.

Two fire trucks battled flames at the Papatoetoe home after a neighbour, who had spotted the roof ablaze, phoned 111 about 4am.

Fire safety officer Phil Faidley was yesterday at the Wyllie Rd address determining the cause of the blaze which saw one woman admitted to Middlemore Hospital for smoke inhalation.

He said a discarded cloth that had been used to oil doors spontaneously ignited - something he has seen in six fire investigations in the past two years.

A chemical reaction between natural oils and the fabric resulted in heat, which later ignited the fabric.

"The more the heat builds up the more active the reaction becomes and it gets hotter and hotter and hotter until it gets to the point, probably at about 250C, the rag will ignite."

He said linseed oil had fuelled the Papatoetoe fire.

An Albany home engulfed in flames last week was a P lab, according to fire investigators.

Fire crews were called to the Albany Heights Rd home last Monday around 9.30pm, and the police clandestine laboratory team was called in on Friday.

"It appears that there has been some type of explosion from methamphetamine, causing a fire," fire safety investigator Lynda McHugh said.

"The results from the house show it was a large explosion and the fire service did have trouble extinguishing certain areas of the house due to chemicals in the property."

Two workers at a Christchurch freight company were decontaminated after a chemical fire broke out at a warehouse in Wigram on Monday night.

The blaze initially broke out on a truck parked inside the Daily Freight depot on McAlpine St, Wigram, at about 8.20pm, a fire department spokesman told the Press newspaper, New Zealand.

The fire spread from the truck to the depot and both fires were brought under control quickly, the spokesperson said.

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The fire had punctured plastic containers storing about 2,000 litres of boron, a chemical used to treat timber, Burford told the Press.

"It's dangerous in bulk like that. People should stand about 20 metres away ... when it's in concentrated forms," he explained.

Good ventilation inside the depot had helped clear fumes quickly, and firefighters had blocked drains to ensure the chemical did not spill into the waterway.

About 1000 litres of dangerous chemicals spilt when a fire in a Christchurch warehouse broke out and melted the containers they were stored in.
The Fire Service says the fire started at about 8pm on Monday in the Daily Freight warehouse on McAlpine Street in the suburb of Sockburn.
It was brought under control within three hours but a cordon remains in place because further chemical clean-up work has to be done.
The spilt chemicals include boron and others used in wood processing.
About ten firefighters and a hazardous materials unit will return to the warehouse to deal with the chemicals on Tuesday morning.

A cleanup operation is underway at the site of a chemical fire at a freight company in Christchurch last night.

Assistant area fire commander Dave Burford says the fire which started in a fully loaded truck, wasn't serious but the chemicals started to run off and flow down the road.

He says the substances that leaked were retrieved by the hazardous chemicals unit overnight.

Fire brigades from Picton, Blenheim and Nelson attended a chemical spill in a shipping container at the Picton Railyard this morning.

Picton Volunteer Fire Brigade station officer Steve McKeown said the shipping container was carrying 12 1000 litre containers of hydrochloric acid, acetic acid and another chemical used for cleaning dairy equipment.

One of the 1000 litre containers of hydrochloric acid developed a leak through its top and lost about 10 litres of the chemical.

More than 100 people were evacuated during a chemical gas alert at Wanganui's Splash Centre yesterday.

Four fire appliances and the fire service's hazardous materials unit attended the suspected chlorine leak.

Police blocked both entrances to the complex in Grey St and London St and two ambulances were also on-site.

A faulty sensor that detects chlorine gas levels set off the warning system at 10.45am.

Splash Centre manager Tracey Prince said pool users were evacuated to Springvale Stadium.

The fire service sent three officers in hazardous material suits to assess the suspected leak.

A teenager who suffered acid burns to his face during an experiment in a Kilbirnie shed has a history of setting off alarming explosions in his backyard, neighbours say.

The Wellington High School pupil, aged 13, was rushed to Hutt Hospital for surgery on Saturday after a beaker of sulfuric acid exploded in his face at his Crawford Rd home about midday after the acid was mixed with another chemical. A Hutt Hospital spokeswoman said the boy was "recovering well" and should be discharged in the next day or so.

Yesterday, one neighbour said that over the past two years they had heard loud explosions that sounded like rifle fire and had then seen clouds of smoke.

A teenage boy who suffered significant acid burns to his face was doing experiments in his Wellington suburban garage when a beaker of sulfuric acid exploded.

The 13-year-old boy was with a friend in the Kilbirnie garage about noon on Saturday when they mixed an unknown chemical with the acid, Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said.

"When the two things got mixed, it exploded a beaker and that's how it ended up on his face."

The boy was rushed by ambulance in a serious condition to Hutt Hospital, which has a specialist burns unit, and had surgery on Saturday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

He had improved to a stable condition yesterday.

Five fire engines attended the scene, with firefighters donning protective suits to cleanup the chemicals.

Mr MacLean said a council hazardous substance officer had also attended, and spoke to the boy's friend. "It sounds like his friend wasn't hurt. His friend said they were just pottering around, doing a few experiments."

Police seized some of the chemicals, Mr MacLean said.

"Our people will be working with police on it because the question has to be, just what chemicals were there?"

Yesterday, a neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said loud explosions had been heard from the Crawford Rd property periodically over the past two years.

Firefighters are dealing with a large chlorine leak at Carter Holt Harvey's Kinleith plant.

Seven fire appliances from Rotorua, Putaruru, Tokoroa and the plant's own brigade, were called the chemical plant tank farm on Kinleith Rd, south of Tokoroa, at 11.10am.

Northern fire communications shift manager Jaron Phillips said firefighters had isolated the leak and were waiting for the gas to disperse.

A full evacuation had taken place and the gas cloud was dissipating over the forestry.

Staff were expected to be allowed back into the building by this afternoon.

A man was seen leaving an alleged Takapuna P lab with a soot-covered face shortly before the home was engulfed by flames.

Police are searching for the man who they believe was injured in the chemical explosion that started the fire, though he has not sought any medical attention.

The Harley Close unit was almost destroyed by the fire that began about 8am on Monday.

Detective Sergeant Steve Brewer of North Shore police said he believed the occupant of the house was responsible.

"We think he was in the process of doing a cook when the explosion's happened or the fire's started," he said.

"There were reports from neighbours of a male rapidly leaving the area with what appeared to be soot on his face but he hasn't surfaced at any hospital or A and E."

A Lincoln University staff member was treated for acid burns to his face after a chemical spill on campus this afternoon.

Emergency services rushed to what was initially reported as an explosion at the Lincoln campus shortly before 3pm.

A St John spokesman said a man was taken to Christchurch Hospital emergency department for treatment.

Altogether five fire appliances, two ambulances, two rapid response vehicles and police arrived at the scene.

However, Lincoln vice-chancellor Roger Field said the nitiric acid spill had caused only minor burns and the staff member was decontaminated in an emergency shower.

"There was a loss of containment but it has now been neutralised," Field said.

Field said there was no explosion. "There were fumes in the air but certainly no fire or flames."

The spill was in a science laboratory in the Hilgendorf Wing.

Four people were hospitalised following a chemical spill at the New Zealand Light Leathers factory at Washdyke.

Emergency services were called to the Meadows Rd business in Washdyke around 12.30pm yesterday.

About 300 litres of tanning chemicals were spilled, resulting in five people being treated.

Three men and a woman were taken to hospital.

Timaru senior fire station officer Phil De Joux said staff were outside identifying a mixture of chemicals when they became sick.

Mr De Joux said employees who had inhaled fumes were put through a decontamination shower before being taken away by ambulance.

Staff contaminated by a chemical spill at a Timaru factory have been released from hospital.

An alkaline substance leaked from the New Zealand Light Leathers facility on Meadows Road at about 12.25pm today.

The chemical was meant to go into a treatment plant but a system failure resulted in the substance overflowing and running onto a driveway and down an effluent drain.

Four staff started feeling unwell and an ambulance and fire crews were called to the scene.

The affected people were decontaminated at the site and were treated at hospital for breathing problems.

One of Auckland's newest hotels faces a hefty bill to decontaminate a room which police say was secretly turned into a methamphetamine lab.

With just weeks until the Rugby World Cup begins, the four-star Quadrant Hotel must now be cleared by Auckland Council inspectors of possible dangerous toxins before visitors can stay in the room.

Near the High Court building and with views of the Waitemata Harbour and Albert Park, the Quadrant has 150 rooms at up to $430 a night.

But a police raid on the hotel on July 28 found equipment and materials used to manufacture the Class A drug and a couple living

Police   and fire safety officers are investigating a fire at Mangere College in south Auckland yesterday evening.

Firefighters were called to one of Auckland's largest high schools shortly before 5pm after smoke and fire were seen billowing from a classroom.

At the peak of the fire, four appliances attended the blaze.

The first unit on the scene called for more backup after reporting that the room was well ablaze.

Fire Chief Bob Morrison said that when they arrived they found the science lab and adjoining office flaming.

"It was quickly extinguished," he said.

As a precaution fire crews involved underwent a chemical de-contamination.

Insurers are concerned as claims resulting from P lab activity are on the rise

The Insurance Council is alarmed that the number of claims for damage to property from P lab activity is increasing.

Property damage from P labs is caused by the chemical contamination that results from the cook-up process and, in worst cases houses may need to be demolished.

There are also a number of instances of fire damage due to P lab explosions.

Insurance Council spokesman, Terry Jordan, says property losses are becoming more significant and insurers are becoming increasingly concerned about the extent of these losses.