The Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A firefighter is counting his luck after a red-hot steel rod was fired into his helmet from an exploding vehicle, local media reported Thursday.

The steel rod was traveling at such speed it punched a hole through a steel door before hitting 41-year-old Gary Wright's Kevlar fire helmet, The New Zealand Herald said.

Wright was getting ready to fight a blaze earlier this month that had engulfed a garage full of vehicles in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, when the steel rod fired out of an exploding van 62 feet away.

"I had only just put my BA (breathing apparatus) set on and put my helmet back on," he said.

"I had my head forward and was adjusting the headband on the helmet ... the next minute, whack.... It was a pretty hard whack, it knocked my head back," Wright was quoted as telling the paper.

"It felt like someone coming up and giving me a really good clip around my head ... but I had a glance around and no one was there. Then this glowing thing (the rod) attracted my attention at my feet," Wright said.

Waitakere City Fire Chief Bill Ellis said the rod went through the outer Kevlar layer of the helmet but had been stopped by a protective inner layer.

Wright was left with a headache and some pain on the left side of his head where his helmet strap was pulled back by the force of the rod's impact.

"It wasn't until on the way home that I saw the hole (in the helmet) and told the boss," he said.

"I think most people think I was pretty lucky," said Wright, an 11-year fire fighting veteran.