Far North fire: Villagers will spend third night evacuated from swamp blaze

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

Fire & Emergency NZ incident controller Wipari Henwood explains the latest on the fire near Kaimaumau on Monday.

Thirty people from an evacuated Far North township will spend a third night away from their homes as a 2000-hectare swamp blaze continues to burn.

Kaimaumau residents face another night sleeping at a school due to the Waiharara scrub blaze which started on Saturday.

Fire and Emergency Northland, reported conditions in the area had remained “benign” on Tuesday afternoon, which had been good for firefighting efforts.

Images taken on Sunday night of the scrub fire at Waiharara. The fire tripled in size overnight on Sunday to about 2000 hectares.

Residents would spend the night at Waihara School unless they were able to make other arrangements on Tuesday night, as a “precaution”, Fire and Emergency Northland said.

A timelapse, captured by Noah Dickinson, showing the fire burning at Waiharara on Saturday afternoon.

* Far north fire engulfs 300 hectares, seven helicopters at work

Earlier in the day the residents were allowed back into Kaimaumau township to pick up belongings and check on their homes.

A massive fire blazes in a peat swamp near Waiharara in the Far North. Nine helicopters are involved in trying to extinguish the flames.

Far North Mayor John Carter said villagers had been provided with the essentials and were in good spirits when he visited the school hall where they were staying on Tuesday morning.

“All seems to be under control,” he said.

On Tuesday morning, the fire was burning through a swamp, making fighting it difficult as machinery couldn’t get through the water, Carter said.

Crews were called to the fire at Waiharara shortly before 1.30pm Saturday.

Only helicopters were able to reach the flames.

Carter said firefighters managed to get control of the fire on Monday by building a fire break on the northern end of the wetland, and another around Kaimaumau township, south of the blaze.

There were 10 helicopters and 30 ground crews fighting the fire on Tuesday, Northland Fire and Emergency said in an update on social media.

Favourable conditions overnight had limited the growth of the fire, which had now burnt just over 2000 hectares.

At the weekend, 30 Kaimaumau residents, along with about 15 cats and dogs, were evacuated to Waiharara School. They spent a second night there on Monday.

Nine helicopters were at work on Tuesday making a “water curtain” around the top end of where the firebreak was, wetting a wide area.

Carter described Monday’s weather as “unhelpful”.

“The whole atmosphere is different,” he said.

“Some I know are getting ash 40 or 50 kilometres away … it’s eerie.”

On Monday, police cordoned off the town with a roadblock and wouldn’t let residents in apart from a brief period in the morning.

The Kaimaumau wetland is the only remaining freshwater wetland in Northland larger than 1000 hectares and is home to 11 species of threatened plants, a Department of Conservation spokeswoman said.