Roadside burnoff a traffic hazard

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

FIREFIGHTERS were called out last night after smoke from a burnoff of poplar and willow logs left burning after dark near Te Karaka drifted across the state highway.

Te Karaka volunteer fire brigade, with an appliance and a tanker, a tanker from Gisborne and three Rural Fire units responded at 6.50pm.

“The landowner had set half-a-dozen logs alight near the banks of the Waipaoa River just north of the township,” said Te Karaka fire chief Jamie Simpson.

The fire was about 100 metres from SH2.

“The burnoff was flaming and dense smoke from it was drifting across the road,” he said.

“So it created a traffic hazard and you are not allowed to have fires like that going after dark."

The firefighters were there for more than two hours putting it out.

“Access was an issue because the area where the fire was went under water during the flooding last month,” Mr Simpson said.

“The ground was still too soft to get heavy fire appliances in close to it. It took a bit of putting out. Once logs start burning they burn and burn underneath.”