Fire services in the wider Napier and Hastings area had one of their busiest Guy Fawkes in years with more than 30 calls during the weekend.
None caused major damage, grass, bushes and trees being the worst affected as the crews battled two nights, where most of the calls were within just a few hours.
The workload was in stark contrast to distant areas, with no calls in the area from Waipawa to Dannevirke, and only two in the Wairoa area.
Fire services in the Napier-Hastings area answered 10 calls in seven hours from 9pm on Friday and 4am, and 13 between 7pm and midnight on Saturday night, when there were two others in Hawke's Bay, in Wairoa and at Mahia.
The biggest on Friday night appeared to be in Hastings East where young people with fireworks were being blamed for a fire which burned a large tree and about 20m of hedge on the boundary of Windsor Park.
The blaze was reported about 9.20pm on Friday and resident Tony Auckram believed it was caused by sparks and embers from fireworks being used by young people who fled the area as the foliage ignited.
He said it started slowly "but soon it was all on", the fire stretching an estimated 6m up the tree and into the sky.
A sizeable crowd was watching by the time two Fire Service crews arrived. Mr Auckram thought his children at least had got the message about fireworks.
A similar fire on Saturday night was extinguished by a Fire Service crew near the corner of Riverbend Rd and The Loop, on the southern outskirts of Napier.
Nationally, a mostly trouble-free Guy Fawkes night was marred by a handful of child injuries and a spike in terrified pets going missing, APNZ reported.
The number of callouts was higher than usual for a Saturday night, particularly in the drier parts of the South Island, a Fire Service spokesman said.
St John Ambulance said it was no busier than a usual Saturday night, with most incidents relatively minor, although a small number of children were treated for fireworks-related injuries.
The SPCA received no reports of seriously injured animals but executive director Bob Kerridge said there had been a spike in the number of missing pets.
The Coastguard investigated a number of flare sightings reported on Saturday last night, all of which turned out to be fireworks.