Bush fire in Wellington's Wadestown 'contained but not extinguished'

Photo / Katrina Bennett

More that 50 firefighters are battling a bush fire in a hill suburb of Wellington.

"The fire has been contained but not extinguished," said Carlos Dempsey, a shift manager at Fire and Emergency NZ's central region communications centre.

The blaze broke out shortly before 4pm in the city's green belt at Wadestown, in the vicinity of Weld St about 100m from homes.

Dempsey said eight Wellington City fire engines were being used against the fire, along with a number of rural fire trucks.

"It's been a significant incident for us because it's burning in some difficult [hilly] terrain."

"There have been no reports of properties being threatened or any injuries [to the public]. It appears to be contained within the town belt vegetation."

"There was a minor injury to a firefighter."

Up on the hill by Ngaio/Wadestown pic.twitter.com/UizXvFnw9K

— GrumpSec Spottycat 🏳️‍🌈🐆 (@kyhwana) February 9, 2019

Soon after the fire began, local resident Paula was in Wadestown and said "it's tinder dry. We can see the flames. It's quite big.

"The wind is blowing it away towards the trees, away from the houses, but there are lots of trees there."

Photo / Katrina Bennett

Newstalk ZB's Katrina Bennett was near the fire scene and said police were manning a cordon around the blaze.

"You can see flames in the trees, still shooting up into the sky.

"There's a lot of smoke, and a bit of a haze in the sky as well."