Helicopters were being used to control the blaze. Photo / Warren Buckland
Helicopters were being used to control the blaze. Photo / Warren Buckland
A fire razing 350 hectares of forest north of Napier has caused millions of dollars of potential loss to growing pine plantations, with the full extent of the destruction yet to become clear.
The fire broke out on Monday mid-morning, and was still burning 24 hours later, at one pointstretching over both Forest Management New Zealand and Pan Pac forests.
Pan Pac chief executive Doug Ducker said the company had lost 200ha of five-year-old pine trees from its Shinoda Forest.
The cash loss is in excess of $500,000 for seedlings, and the fire pushes back the forests yield by at least five years.
In today's terms, 200ha of pine forest would yield roughly $10 million on maturity, but Ducker said it was difficult to say what the market will be doing in 25 years when the trees are ready for harvest.
A fix-winged plane using retardant to fight the fire. Photo / Warren Buckland
Firefighters had controlled the blaze on Pan Pac land by 1.30pm on Tuesday, although it was still burning on neighbouring property, owned by Forest Management New Zealand.
Ducker wanted to thank firefighters for their hard work fighting the blaze.
He said he was not aware of what caused the fire at this stage, but understood there were harvesting operations happening on FMNZ land.
"I guess we'll hear in due course and hopefully take the learnings we can from it."
Chief executive of the Hawke's Bay Forestry group Keith Dolman said the fire was significant.
"Definitely 300ha is serious, it's a lot of money, it's a lot of industry, and it's not out yet."
On Tuesday evening, firefighters confirmed the fire was under control.
The site would be monitored by two crews overnight, as well as a drone using infrared to check for hotspots.
Incident controller Trevor Mitchell said the drone would help them focus efforts on Wednesday, when 55 firefighters will be back on deck.
"The teams have worked extremely hard today. As well as fighting the fire, we've had contingency fire breaks bulldozed outside of the fire's perimeter and laid fire retardant."
Evacuated homeowners have been allowed to return, and there is no further risk to properties.
The teams were stood down on Monday night due to conditions, but managed to control the edge of the fire on Tuesday morning, meaning they were able to work their way in, Mitchell said.
Up to eight helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft were used to fight the fire from the air.
Hawke's Bay fire and emergency area commander, Ken Cooper, described present fire conditions in Hawke's Bay as "extreme".
After eight fires started on Monday, there were a further five fire callouts across Hawke's Bay overnight on Tuesday morning.
"Yesterday we had two incidents which were caused by powerlines sparking. The wind causes issues. Any ignition source could spark a fire. Our advice is if you see smoke, call 111."
Teams from Manawatu were called up to help with the fire, freeing up Hawke's Bay crews for "business as normal" incidents.
