It took firefighters around six hours to put out a fire that started at a Hafnarfjörður warehouse last night in the Reykjavík capital area, RÚV reports. No injuries were reported, but the fire destroyed the building, which had been empty for some time. The cause of the incident is still unknown, but it is being investigated by the police’s forensics department.
Police received reports of the fire around 8:30 PM last night and all available firefighters were called out to the scene. The warehouse was empty, but the fire spread to an attached storage unit and burned the contents inside, which included tyres. Some gas cylinders inside the burning building caused minor explosions. A favourable wind direction blew the smoke out to sea, limiting the spread of the fire and smoke pollution in nearby areas.
Conditions at the scene were difficult. As the building was covered with corrugated iron on the outside, firefighting crews had to rip off the roof to get at the fire. No firefighters were sent into the building as there were no valuables to recover.
Owner lost another building in a fire four years ago
The house is owned by Hafnarfell hf., which in the ownership of fishing operator Haraldur Reynir Jónasson. Haraldur lost another building in Hafnarfjörður harbour to a fire four years ago. Reporters were unable to get a statement from Haraldur, who is abroad as of the time of writing.
The part of the warehouse where the fire is believed to have broken out has not been in use for some time, but was previously used as a shipbuilding workshop. Two companies operate in the other part of the building, a machine shop and a company that uses part of the building as a storage space.
