Northlanders are reminded to keep an eye on their cooking after a kitchen fire sparked a callout in Whangārei on Monday night. The Whangārei Fire Station dispatched two appliances to a Tikipunga address about 8pm where a pot was left unattended on a stove top. A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said the ceiling of the home was damaged by the small fire. He said unattended cooking was the leading cause of house fires nationwide, and people needed to stay vigilant in the kitchen.
Injuries after Hikurangi crash
A man injured in a car crash in Hikurangi was taken to Whangārei Hospital in a moderate condition. Motorists were unable to travel north as emergency services responded to the single vehicle crash along State Highway 1, near Waro Dr and Corbett Rd, shortly after 11.30am on Tuesday. By 1pm both the road and backlog of traffic had been cleared.
Logging truck rolls
Emergency services were faced with the hard task of clearing a logging truck that rolled in Kohukohu on Tuesday. Fortunately no one was hurt when the truck rolled on Kohukohu Rd, near the ferry landing, around 8am. The Kohukohu Volunteer Fire Brigade responded to the crash with police. It was not known at edition time what caused the truck to roll.
Power cut after truck strikes lines
Powerlines sweeping across Maunu Rd were almost brought crashing down by a truck in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The logging truck struck the low-hanging powerlines around 5.45am on State Highway 14, near Silverstream Rd, in Horahora. The road was closed in both directions for around an hour, cutting off access to Whangārei Hospital from the direction of Maungatapere. Northpower staff were sent to the scene to restore a power outage caused by the incident.
Donate to blind New Zealanders
Blind Low Vision NZ's upcoming annual appeal week, which is a time to celebrate the 180,000 New Zealanders with vision loss living the life they choose, has been cancelled due to Covid uncertainty. The fundraising goal is $470,000 and traditionally, a significant proportion of this would come from the street collection which is to be held on October 22-23.
However, this year, due to current alert levels, the street collection will not be going ahead in Northland, Auckland, and Waikato, but Northlanders can still donate to the cause.
Now, with 950 volunteer co-ordinators and collectors unable to participate in the street collection, the hope is New Zealanders who cannot donate on the street will recognise they can make an online donation at blindlowvision.org.nz.
Jury trials to start again
Jury trials can restart in Northland from today.
Jury trials in the Whangārei District Court may take place from October 20, the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday. In line with the District Court alert level 2 protocol, the presiding judge will decide on a case-by-case basis whether a trial can proceed taking into account the individual circumstances of the case. Jurors are asked to ring 0800 COURTS or check the Ministry of Justice website for instructions.
There are no jury trials scheduled for Kaikohe District Court for this week.