An out-of-control bonfire threatened homes in Te Puna yesterday afternoon.
Firefighters were called to the scrub fire on Waikaraka Drive East about 5pm.
Resident Angie Edgar and her husband packed their car and they were ready to go after they learnt of the fire but firefighters quickly had the blaze under control.
"Our house is in the wind path of it and also on the border of the scrubland, so [my husband] was a bit worried," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Mrs Edgar said she believed the wind was the real problem and had blown an ember into the dry scrub.