Drying nor'westers raise fire fear

The trail of destruction left by winds in Central Otago included damage to Keith and Sharon Hinds' St Bathans cottage. Pictures / Nigel Benson

Firefighters tackling big blazes in the South Island high country are concerned the public may be complacent about fire risk after a cold, wet winter.

Large fires in Otago and Canterbury have been tackled in recent days, and fire crews were still trying to contain a big scrub fire in the Te Rara reserve in the Catlins yesterday.

The cause of the blazes is under investigation, but they have signalled a warning of what may lie ahead.

Even after a winter of heavy snow, and heavy rain across the south in recent weeks, warm nor'west winds had already dried out vegetation in many areas and created ideal fuel for fires.

"The fact is that once we get these nor'west winds, things start to dry out quickly and the fine fuels [such as bracken and tussock] can become available quite quickly for carrying a wildfire," said national rural fire officer Murray Dudfield.

"It's amazing when areas have been covered in snow, and that snow disappears, that fuel can dry out quickly because there is no 'green-up'.

"With the moisture we have had in a lot of areas, that's going to encourage extended growth and of course that becomes an issue ... in the summer."

The blaze affecting 40ha at Te Rara Reserve yesterday was being tackled from the air and on the ground by Department of Conservation fire crews. The previous day, high winds had forced firefighters to retreat from the steep terrain because of safety concerns.

"I wouldn't say that it's under control, but it's as good as we're going to get with the nature of the vegetation," said DoC fire controller John Pearce.

Up to 40 fire crew had earlier fought a blaze at Henley Reserve, near Dunedin, which spread over about 17ha of pine forest and scrub and forced the evacuation of two homes. Hotspots were being dealt with yesterday.

Canterbury firefighters battled to contain a fire that spread over as much as 60ha of grass and scrub in the Ruataniwha Conservation Park, in the Mackenzie Basin.

Another fire, near Lake Coleridge in central Canterbury, spread over about 4ha but was controlled on Saturday. This fire is considered suspicious.

DoC senior technical fire officer Tony Teeling said there was always a run of fires coming out of winter.

"The public doesn't want to get complacent about the fact we had a really wet, cold winter. You get a week or so of drying winds, things dry out and fires can run."