Prohibited fire season to continue despite rain

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The region's fire authorities have no plans to scale back fire restrictions in the wake of the solid falls of rain around the district this week.

Before the rain the fire risk had continued to rise steadily across Tairawhiti.

“The rain has been handy in easing the fire risk but we expect a hot weekend this weekend and dry weather into next week, so things will dry out again pretty quickly,” said principal rural fire officer Ray Dever.

The region has been in a prohibited fire season, with a total fire ban, for several weeks.

“It's not going to work to go back to a restricted fire season for just a few days,” Mr Dever said.

“We cannot jump around like that so the total fire ban stays in force.

“People so far have been really compliant with the prohibited season.”

The seriousness of the fire risk situation prior to the rain was illustrated over the Waitangi holiday weekend, he said.

“A fire got started in some very old pine trees on a property inland from Tokomaru Bay on the Mata Road.

“It wasn't a managed forest, just a block of ‘old man pines' that had perhaps been planted many years ago as a shelter belt,” Mr Dever said.

“It took three days work with ground crews and a helicopter to put it out. We're still not sure how it started.”