Health New Zealand has released CCTV of a ferocious blaze in Whangārei Hospital's car park in a bid to quell conspiracy theories swirling on social media about the cause.
The fire tore through the hospital's lower staff car park on the afternoon of 21 October, damaging 28 vehicles, of which at least 15 were completely destroyed.
The footage from a car park security camera shows a ute backing into a parking space with long dry grass between two rows of cars.
After three minutes wisps of smoke could be seen from the rear of the ute.
The driver noticed the smoke and pulled out of the parking space after about 30 seconds. By then flames were visible.
The motorist drove around to the other side of the parking space for a better look, then drove away, presumably to raise the alarm.
The aftermath of the fire at the Whangārei Hospital car park. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
The flames then spread through the long grass, igniting vehicles on either side as dense clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky.
The video stopped abruptly after 10 minutes, which Health NZ said was due to the camera cable burning through.
Health NZ Te Tai Tokerau operations director Alex Pimm said the CCTV had been released to quell ongoing speculation and misinformation online.
He said the footage backed up the fire investigator's finding that the fire was started by accident after a diesel vehicle parked over dry vegetation.
Pimm said the exhaust from modern diesel vehicles could reach high temperatures, up to 800 degrees, due to the way diesel particulate filters worked.
"We're extremely grateful there were no staff or patient injuries as a result, and at how quickly emergency services arrived at the scene."
Pimm said some vegetation had since been removed from the carpark, and maintenance had been carried out to reduce the risk of similar incidents in future.
Even before the fire had been extinguished, rumours started swirling on social media that the fire had been deliberately lit, that an arrest had been made, and that it had been started by an electric vehicle.
RNZ had been unable to find evidence for any of those claims.
Similar mis- and dis-information surrounded a fatal head-on crash involving an electric bus and a car on Auckland's Tamaki Drive the following day, 22 October.
Multiple claims were made on social media and by online commentators that the bus's batteries had caught fire, causing the tragedy.
However, a spokesperson for Fire and Emergency said the fire started in the car's petrol engine before engulfing both vehicles.
Bus operator Kinetic said an investigation had found the bus batteries were undamaged and did not contribute to the blaze.
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