‘Smoke chaser’ used to fight out-of-control cooking fire

Firefighters were called to Kaiti Beach on Wednesday night to put out a cooking fire which had got out of control. Picture supplied

Firefighters were called to the end of Kaiti Beach Road on Wednesday night after a small cooking fire a man had lit in trees and scrub got out of hand.

Fire and Emergency NZ sent crews there at around 8pm.

A Senior Station Officer said they could not get their big fire appliances to the location due to limited access at the far end of the beach.

“So we used a 4x4  ‘smoke chaser’ vehicle to get water to the fire and it was put out with a hose reel. It had spread to cover an area of about five metres by 10 metres of bush and scrub.”

The officer said it was fortunate the vegetation was damp. If it had been drier the fire could have spread further to become more of a problem.

Police spoke to the homeless man who lit the fire.

The senior firefighter said people needed to be careful with fires anywhere in the open.