Guy Fawkes 2019: Large fires in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
Auckland's maunga will be closed to the public during future Guy Fawkes while fireworks remain available for public sale following a chaotic night across the country, including two large blazes in Auckland.
Scrub fires broke out on Tuesday night – Guy Fawkes – on Maungarei / Mt Wellington and Maungawhau / Mt Eden.
The flames, first reported about 10pm, were visible from surrounding suburbs and plumes of smoke billowed low across the city. By midnight, both fires were largely under control, Fire and Emergency NZ said.
On Wednesday morning, Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Colin Underdown said the Mt Eden fire was put out by 1am and the Mt Wellington fire by 2am.
**READ MORE
* Fires on Mt Wellington, Mt Eden in Auckland after Guy Fawkes fireworks
* Aucklanders 'aghast' at firework rubbish littering Mission Bay
* Grey smoke over Wellington suburb of Newtown on Guy Fawkes Day
* Fireworks to blame for Mount Wellington blaze**
Seven crews, a tanker, and support staff attended the Mt Wellington fire and a further five crews attended the one on Mt Eden.
Paul Majurey, chairman of the Tūpuna Maunga Authority, said the fires on Tuesday night were the last straw.
'Fireworks have been banned on the 14 maunga administered by the authority since it established in 2014 following the landmark Tāmaki Collective Treaty settlement. However, since then there have been repeated fires on the maunga at Guy Fawkes as a result of some members of the public who are unable to resist placing personal fun over public safety.
'These fires are serious – they cause significant harm to these iconic taonga and pose a real risk to people and property.'
As a result, maunga will be closed on November 5th to public access in years to come if people are still able to purchase fireworks.
Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley, who lives near Mt Wellington, said 'we need to ban fireworks' after another 'heartbreaking' blaze on the maunga.
According to the council website, fireworks are banned in public places.
'Remember to find a public display or keep fireworks in your backyard – don't let off fireworks in public places such as parks or beaches, where the activity is banned,' it says.
'Always take care when using fireworks and do not use them on dry or windy days, or close to flammable vegetation.'
Speaking to Stuff, Bartley said the Tūpunga Maunga Authority saw maunga as an ancestor and people needed to imagine the maunga as a person.
If people imagined setting an ancestor on fire, it would ignite the same rage and hurt the community was feeling about another fire being started on the mountain, she said.
Bartley said she started receiving messages about the fire around 10pm and she headed there to see what was happening.
It was the worst fire she had seen there and boxes of used fireworks were at the bottom of the mountain, she said.
She expected police to follow up with those responsible.
A Stuff reporter at Mt Wellington on Wednesday morning said a large section at the top of the mountain, covering about 100 metres by 200m, was burnt.
She said the air smelled of burning and some fire hoses that remained in the area were damaged.
The remains on fireworks littered the path on the walk up the mountain as well as as the top near where the fire broke out.
A woman who lived nearby and walked up the mountain most days was sad to see what had happened.
'We absolutely love being up here.
'The earth is so beautiful, it will replenish and grow again.'
She said it had been dry at the top of the maunga the last few days.
Usually people would light fireworks on the artificial plateau in the depth of the crater, she said.
'Whoever came up here knew the area to come up the way they did in the middle of the night.'
Meanwhile, the crater at Mt Eden had a burnt patch about 25m by 30m, including a fence on Wednesday morning.
Despite the burnt patch, the area was rich with about 60 tourists.
Some were posing to have photos in front of the burnt grass.
A slight burnt smell lingered in the air, but firefighters had removed all evidence of them being there just hours before.
Friends of Maungawhau chairman Sel Arbuckle said he could see fireworks being let off from the mountain about 10pm on Tuesday.
Letting off fireworks from the mountain was banned, he said, and he was 'gobsmacked' that emergency services didn't have an incident control car on the mountain in case of this happening.
He said the mountain needed a full time ranger on site to patrol the site.
Residents also reported firework debris across Mission Bay last year.
The Tūpunga Maunga Authority has been contacted for comment. Police said the incidents were not being investigated.
Fire and Emergency NZ said there were 55 fire incidents across Auckland and Northland in total.
In Waikato and Bay of Plenty, paddocks and trees near railways were set ablaze.
Between the two districts, about 16 fireworks-related fires broke out, according to Fire and Emergency NZ.
Among the blazes was a grass fire which broke out in a paddock in Waerenga, shortly before 10pm on Tuesday, Underdown said.
Around the same time, a single tree caught fire near a railway in Tokoroa.
Thankfully, all fires were extinguished with few issues, but it was a busy night for crews, Underdown said.
In Palmerston North, a wayward firework from a public Guy Fawkes display in Anzac Park appeared to have caused a large scrub fire, with a video sent to Stuff showing a skyrocket launching but the trajectory going awry.
Immediately afterwards a growing orange glow appeared.
Smoke poured from a large area of hillside as the fire burnt scrub and trees, with firefighters spraying water from the top of the bank and using spotlights to keep an eye on the blaze. The fire burnt its way south along the bank.
A Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman said they hadn't confirmed the cause of the blaze, which was 50m by 70m in size, but they had received a lot of calls saying fireworks were the cause.
Meanwhile, the southern 111 centre in Christchurch dealt with more than 300 callouts.
One of the most significant was a large hedge fire caused by fireworks in Parklands, Christchurch, which firefighters were called to about 9.10pm on Tuesday.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman Simon Lyford said the 50m hedge was between homes on Bluestone Dr and the Waitikiri Golf Course.
Three urban trucks and a rural crew battled the blaze. The fire wasn't extinguished until about 11.40pm.
Resident Carl Taylor described the fire as 'massive'.
'We had just been commenting that they were impressive looking fireworks. It was snowing burning flakes, so lucky the house didn't catch.'
No homes were damaged and no people were injured.
Lyford said the southern communications centre took 57 calls from the south but also had to help the teams in Auckland and Wellington, taking 225 and 36 from each respectively.
Firefighters attended nine fireworks-related incidents in the South Island, Lyford said.
More than 20,000 people have signed a petition to ban the sale of fireworks.