Woolner business goes up in flames as huge fire rips through warehouse

UPDATED: The owners of one of Darwin’s largest food supply warehouses — destroyed by fire today — has vowed to keep the business running. Asian United Food in Bishop Street supplies close to 60 per cent of Darwin’s restaurants and, significantly, the Royal Darwin Hospital - WATCH OUR VIDEOS HERE

UPDATED: THE remains of a large wholesale food and supply warehouse, gutted by a huge fire overnight, is expected to continue smouldering throughout the rest of today and tomorrow.

NT Fire and Rescue station officer Tony Miles was one of 17 firefighters to fight the blaze in the early hours of this morning.

The factory ablaze on Bishop St about 1am. Picture: Supplied

Explosions could be heard throughout the morning with Mr Miles explaining that it was exploding cans of food and drums of cooking oil

Mr Miles said until the building was structurally sound firies would not be able to enter the building to conduct their investigation.

“The investigation is in its very early stages at the moment so it’s really just an outside assessment that we can conduct until the area is safe to enter,” he said.

“Once we’re sure that it’s structurally sound to enter and all the hot spots are out then we will be able to go in and conduct a more in depth analysis of what has occurred.”

Mr Miles said the remains of the warehouse were expected to smoulder throughout tomorrow.

EARLIER: The owners of one of Darwin’s largest wholesale food and supply warehouses destroyed by fire in the early hours of this morning, has taken immediate action to keep the business running and have the supply chain open to the Royal Darwin Hospital and city restaurants.

Asian United Food, run by the Lay family in Bishop Street supplies close to 60 per cent of Darwin’s restaurants and, significantly, the Royal Darwin Hospital.

The Asian United Food Service factory in Bishop St on Wednesday morning. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

Family member Kivi Lay said the business will operate from a second large warehouse and store, the Asian Emporium at Coconut Grove.

“We will be working around the clock to keep the supply chain open to our customers from the Asian Emporium location,” Mr Lay said.

“The frozen food and meat side of the business is still fully operational and we will be getting new stock up as quickly as possible.

“It will cause some disruption for some of our customers but we will be working 24 hours a day to get things back to normal.”

Smoke continues to billow from the gutted food supply warehouse well into the morning

The fire was reported just after midnight and took crews several hours to get under control. It forced the closure of Bishop and Snell streets until midmorning.

Police and fire investigators are still on the scene.

EARLIER: A FIRE has ripped through a warehouse in Woolner, gutting the building.

Smoke alarms at the warehouse, owned by business Asian United Food Service, alerted Fire and Rescue and Police at 12.30am.

NT Police Watch Commander Tanya Mace said when emergency services arrived at the scene the building was engulfed.

“Probably half the building was fully engulfed. Fire crews have managed to stop the fire from spreading to other buildings and vehicles,” she said.

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A witness said there were “lots of small explosions and pops still going on” about 1am well after the fire services were bringing the blaze under control.

“The police and fireys told us to keep well back because of the explosions.

“I’m guessing they were all the containers of food oil and things like that going up.”

Fire rips through the Bishop St warehouse overnight

The witness said they were “well over a dozen” fire appliances, police cars and ambulance vehicles at the scene at the height of the blaze.

“The police had already blocked off Bishop St from both directions byt about 12.45am to let the fireys do their work,” he said.

No one was injured in the fire.

She said the building was still on fire and urged the public to avoid the area while police and fire and rescue conducted their investigation.

There are road blocks in place between Snell St and Bishop Rd, and Damaso Pl and Bishop St.

The scene at the factory in Bishop St, Woolner this morning. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford

According to Asian United Food Service’s website, the business is one of the largest wholesale suppliers for the food service catering in the NT.

They supply restaurants, shops and hotels in the Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine regions.