Twenty-five Kaiapoi homes had to be evacuated on Saturday night after the Suttons tool factory went up in flames.
A thick film of smoke covered the workplace of more than 90 people, with 65 firefighters called to the scene.
“I had no idea that the smoke i was seeing at two o’clock this morning is my work and then I think about three o'clock it was just an orange glow, huge," Suttons employee Amber Whitemore told 1News.
Kaiapoi resident Suede Paki said "you could hear metal like clanking when the big boom happened, we were actually out there you could see like a big mushroom cloud came out it just was like black smoke everywhere".
Canterbury Fire and Emergency commander Dave Stackhouse said the factory uses cutting oil and when the fire took hold, a lot of pungent smoke drifted into the Williams St area of Kaiapoi.
Stackhouse says the oil is also creating environmental concerns for the cam river that runs alongside the factory.
“We have to work closely with ECan (Environment Canterbury) to make sure excess water flow is monitored and we can restrict the environmental spread of the oil,” he said.
Despite the ferocity of the blaze, firefighters were able to stop the flames from spreading to the rear of the building, the engineering workshop,
The Australian owners have now been informed but workers hope plans to rebuild will get underway soon.
Investigations are underway to establish what caused the fire.
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