A Wellington man who lost a lifetime of possessions in a huge fire at a storage facility says he is appalled the building had no sprinkler system.

The blaze at the Kiwi Self Storage lock-up destroyed items including Academy awards, family heirlooms and documents.

Firefighters were called to the site in Kilbirnie 12.45am on Friday when the building containing 750 storage units caught fire. It took hours to bring the blaze under control, and about 30 firefighters remained at the scene overnight on Friday damping down hotspots.