By Bailey Brannon and Rayssa Almeida

Business owners have been left devastated after a fire ravaged through a commercial complex in South Auckland on Wednesday night, leaving premises in ruins.

Eleven fire crews were called out to Great South Road in the suburb of Takanini at about 9pm, forcing the closure of nearby roads and motorways.

The smell of smoke was still heavy in the air on Thursday morning, with ash and debris spilling out of businesses into the carpark, the complex left a burned shell.

Golden Hut Takeaways owner Jady was working when the fire started.

“We had to send all the people out [of the shop]… it was so scary,” she said.

“We couldn’t take anything with us, [we] just went [out] and waited.

She said she had no insurance and the damage would take a toll on her finances.

“It will cost us a lot, I really have no idea [what to do with] our lives. If the repairs take too long, we will have no income.”

Two shops away, Abby Greenwood was assessing the damage to her physiotherapy clinic. She was at a comedy show when the fire started, and heard about it after leaving the venue.

On Thursday morning, she found the shop soaked.

“Everything inside is completely flooded from the sprinkler system, it’s got no roof, all the ceiling tiles have fallen off,” she said.

Greenwood said they were now scrambling to relocate hundreds of patients to the clinic’s other branch in Karaka.

“There is going to be a massive clean-up job with insurance going forward, and hopefully we can get going as soon as possible – we have a whole lot of patients to look after.”

Six of the nine businesses in the complex got damaged, with the other three saved by a firewall.

Fit60 is one of the businesses that was not affected. The owner, who RNZ agreed not to name, said smoke was pouring out of the restaurant when gym members noticed the flames.

The nearby gas station had to stop its pumps overnight due to the high risk of explosions. Staff members told RNZ they could not see the flames until it reached the complex’s high ceiling.

The complex’s landlord declined an interview, but said he will be spending the day contacting insurance to assess the extent of the damage.

Fire and Emergency said due to the structure of the buildings, the fire had a high risk of spreading, so a crew spent the night monitoring hot spots.

Assistant Fire Commander Dave McKeown said the fire started in a restaurant and spread through a ceiling cavity.

“There was a lot of fire damage in and around where the fire started, with it spreading through the mezzanine ceiling to other premises.”

An investigation into the cause has begun.

No one was injured.