Another 30 bills for firefighting costs totalling many thousands of dollars have been sent out this week to Northlanders defying a region-wide total fire ban.
Northern principal rural fire officer Myles Taylor said people were continuing to burn rubbish and vegetation, despite the ongoing drought, extreme fire danger and total fire ban.
No one in the Far North could claim not to know about the fire ban because every mail address in the district had now received a notice, Mr Taylor said.
There had also been extensive publicity since restrictions first came into force in December.
The Rural Fire Authority would invoice every person who deliberately lit a fire and caused a fire callout.
The cost of sending out a fire appliance started at about $500; costs rose dramatically once helicopters were required. A helicopter costs around $2500 an hour to run. In the most serious cases the authority would also take offenders to court.
In one blatant example, firefighters were called to an out-of-control rubbish fire at a Mangakahia Rd property, south of Kaikohe, last week where a "total fire ban" sign was mounted prominently outside the gate.
Another resident called 111 after seeing smoke; when firefighters arrived a woman was struggling to douse an out-of-control rubbish fire with a garden hose to no avail. Her backyard was on fire and the chicken coop was about to go up in flames.
"We're showing no tolerance for that sort of nonsense. Someone is going to lose their house as a result of these fires."
The Mangakahia Rd resident would be billed for the cost of putting out the fire and was likely to be prosecuted as well.
Mr Taylor said people were also lighting fires at night in the hope of going undetected, but they too would be identified and made to pay.
Offenders who had not paid their bills after the first round of firefighting invoices earlier this year could expect a visit from the Rural Fire Authority. If they still refused to pay, the authority would pursue them via a debt collection agency or the courts.
Last summer fires in Northland claimed two lives and cost $2 million to put out. That does not include the value of destroyed property, such as 350 hectares of pine trees at Horeke and a number of homes and baches on the Karikari Peninsula.
If firefighting costs can't be recovered from the fire-starters, ratepayers, taxpayers and insurance policy holders end up paying.