McDonald's Sign Engulfed in Flames While Staff Inside Restaurant

The iconic golden arches outside a McDonald's restaurant became engulfed in flames on Sunday night in Auckland, New Zealand.

The McDonald's sign on Whangaparāoa Road was seen ablaze against the sky when Fire and Emergency New Zealand were called at around 11:30 p.m. local time. McDonald's said that staff were inside the store when the fire began, according to a statement sent to the New Zealand Herald.

"We're currently investigating what caused the exterior pole sign at our Whangaparāoa restaurant to catch fire overnight," the spokesperson said in the statement. "The restaurant was closed at the time, and staff were finishing up cleaning when the incident occurred. They notified emergency services, who responded quickly."

Newsweek reached out to McDonald's via email for comment.

Baeden Tāne Davies, a local resident, captured the dramatic scene while he was driving home. He suddenly saw that the familiar fast food sign was on fire.

"[I'm] unsure how it happened," Davies told Newsweek. "The sign had been flickering for months, possibly faulty wiring."

Firefighters waited for the electricity to be turned off before extinguishing the fire. It was quickly dealt with and nobody in the area was hurt.

The Whangaparāoa Road branch is one of 170 McDonald's restaurants in New Zealand, 61 of which are in Auckland.

By contrast, the U.S. is home to more than 13,500 McDonald's restaurants, with 1,218 in California alone.

After capturing the shocking sight on camera, Davies shared the picture of the flaming sign on Reddit's r/pics subreddit, where it has been upvoted over 23,000 times and had thousands of comments.

"Album cover material," said aehooo, while Donizetti1 joked: "The coffee really is too hot, I guess."

"This goes hard, images for the revolution," added MooronicMuppet.

Askewboka asked: "Which sign of the mcpocalypse is this?" while Golden-Grams joked that it was "McJudgement Day."

People continued to share jokes and quips about the sight of the burning golden arches online.

"Does anyone have any McMarshmallows?" joked CannabisaurusRex401, while canbrinor said: "New desktop background just dropped."

This isn't the first time recently that a McDonald's sign has captured attention. Earlier this year, a McDonald's restaurant in Jacksonville, Florida, stoked rivalry with a nearby Burger King when it added a message to a sign that read: "Burger King wants Titans to win."

Designed as a provocation over the big game between Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, the playful sign addition left local residents laughing.