High winds contributed to a busy weekend for the region's fire brigades with multiple vegetation fires prompting a warning to take extreme care with lighting fires outside.
Hastings station officer Mike Manning said a scrub fire broke out at Arbuckle Rd, Frimley, just after 8pm on Friday where preparations were underway for a property development.
"They were breaking the bylaws by burning after dark with no supervision - the embers were going into the grass and we spent about an hour putting it out."
Another scrub fire broke out at Maraekakaho just after midday yesterday and the same afternoon Wairoa fire crews were called to a scrub fire that was threatening a house, Mr Manning said.
It was reminder for people to be cautious with the equinox wind season approaching.
"People need to be extremely cautious when lighting fires outside. If there are high winds don't light fires," he said.
High winds hit Central Hawke's Bay yesterday, with maximum gusts of 95km/h recorded on the Takapau plains.
This helped fan the flames of a vegetation fire at the Blackburn Rd/Hinerua Rd area, Ongaonga, just before midday, said CHB District Council's deputy principal rural fire officer Bruce Kitto.
A gorse burn-off blew the fire around and into bush areas, and with no vehicle access, Mr Kitto said firefighters had to tackle the situation on foot, using shovels and hand beaters to try and prevent the fire spreading.
"The winds were howling around, but we ended up leaving it with the property owner to keep an eye on and hopefully the rain that had started would deal with it."
That was nothing on the day before, however, when he spent 8 hours at Oruawharo Rd south of the Silver Fern Farms freezing works, trying to control another burn-off that spread across about one and a half hectares with the wind.
"There had been a number of fires lit in this block of scrub and bush, about nine of them, and they blew up in the wind.
"There were large stacks of half-burnt logs all flaring up."
He said two water tankers attended, pumping water from a nearby creek as well, and more staff were brought in during the day.
"We had two large diggers come in and bury the big fires then we dealt with the hotspots."
He pleaded with people to check the weather forecast before lighting fires, and also if it got windy to check on fires that had been lit previously.
This weekend's callouts added to a number the rural brigade had attended in the last fortnight.
"It's driving us batty, it's not rocket science folks," Mr Kitto said.
"There's two things - people need to listen to the forecast, and look ahead to the five-day forecast. The fire you lit when it was nice and calm becomes a liability when it's windy."
He advised people to check old fires to ensure they had not reignited, something he had seen happen in the past with fires up to six months old.
"Even if you can't see anything on top of the ground, get a shovel and dig down a bit to see whether it's still hot."
If it was, he said to get water on it or bury it to prevent it spreading.
If people had any doubts he advised them to get in touch with their local rural fire brigade.