Source: Radio New Zealand
A firefighter extinguishing hotspots at the Fernhill fire on Tuesday. Supplied / FENZ
Fire crews are battling to control a scrub blaze that broke out near Hastings on Tuesday, leaving one person hospitalised and multiple buildings destroyed.
The fire in Fernhill – between the township and the Ngaruroro River bridge – also forced people living in and around the Farmhouse Lodge accommodation from their homes.
Fire and Emergency Assistant Commander Jason Hill said crews had been patrolling the fire overnight, and it was contained, but firefighting would resume on Wednesday morning.
“Crews will be looking to bring the fire to a point where it’s 100 percent controlled, so that means there is no chance of it burning outside of the containment lines, whether the wind picks up or not,” he said.
“We still have multiple pockets of fire burning within the perimeter.”
A fire investigator would also begin looking into the cause of the fire, said Hill.
He said two homes, multiple sheds and some machinery were completely destroyed.
When crews arrived, flames fanned by strong winds were running up the hill, threatening multiple buildings, Hill said.
Firefighting efforts were hampered by gusts of up to 90 km/h, which meant they could not call on helicopters, leaving ground crews to tackle it.
Dawson Bliss owns Farmhouse Lodge and the fire was burning on his property, he said.
A tenant alerted him to smoke billowing up the hill and when he went to investigate, it appeared an old bus was on fire on flat land near the Ngaruroro river.
“I rushed down there and got close to it and had extinguishers and so forth, but it was just too ablaze to try and get close enough,” he said.
Bliss did not know when he and his tenants would be able to return to the property.
On Tuesday he told RNZ he was feeling okay, but “later on it might be worse, when we take stock of the situation”.
Fire and Emergency said Civil Defence had helped evacuees to find a place to stay overnight.
Hastings Mayor Wendy Schollum said it was distressing for those impacted by the fire – and it was a stark reminder of how dangerous the region’s hot, windy summers could be.
Schollum and Hill urged people to take fire bans seriously.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
