Fire crews bring Hawke's Bay forest fire under control

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

A 15 hectare fire in a forestry block, Porangahau, is now under control

A burn-off sparked a large fire that has scorched 15 hectares of a forestry block in Central Hawke's Bay.

Fire communications shift manager Murray Dunbar said crews responded to the blaze in Porangahau at 8.20pm on Monday. They worked to contain the fire on the 20 hectare forestry block and monitored it overnight. By late morning it was under control.

Rural fire crews along with a helicopter would continue to douse the blaze throughout Tuesday and would remain at the site for the next couple of days to dampen hot spots.

The fire was not at risk of spreading to any neighbouring properties.

An aerial shot of the 15 hectare forestry fire in Porangahau

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The fire in Wimbledon Rd ignited at 8.20pm on Monday. (File photo).

Fire assistant area commander Nigel Hall said about five ground crews remained at the scene and were monitoring and dampening the steep terrain.

'Thats one of the reasons why we couldn't get to it last night, it would have been too dangerous to send crews up, so all they could do was monitor the fire,'

The forestry block is about 15 kilometres Wimbledon Rd, right on the border between Central Hawke's Bay and Tararua.

Weather conditions were calm, but winds were looking to pick up later in the day.

Hall said Hawke's Bay is going into the restricted fire season on November 11 and said people should check the FENZ website to see if permits were required for their area before lighting fires.