Stuff
Multiple fire crews in Southland attended a “fully-involved” bush fire in Centre Bush on Tuesday morning. (File photo)
Fire crews in Southland battled a well-involved bush fire on a hillside in Centre Bush, Southland, overnight, with high winds fanning the flames.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand were alerted to the fire just after 2.10am and initially sent one truck from Winton and one tanker from Dipton, shift manager Simon Lyford said.
But upon firefighters’ arrival, they immediately requested a second truck and tanker. These crews were sent from Dipton and Lumsden.
Firefighters worked to extinguish a large pile of wood about 40 metres by 10m that was burning in high winds, Lyford said.
By 3am crews raised the fire to a second alarm and requested further assistance. A third tanker from Balfour was sent to the scene.
Lyford said the fire had grown to a 40m by 20m “fully-involved” blaze and crews worked with three hoses to extinguish it.
Firefighters’ main concern was that the wind was transferring embers further and would ignite other areas. At 4am a digger was at the scene and started to dig into the pile of wood that started the fire and by 5.30am the fire was out and crews started to dampen down the area.
At 5.48am crews left the scene.
