Department of Conservation and Far North rural firefighting crews worked in hot, windy conditions yesterday to contain a fire that burned through 30ha of wetland habitat, bush and scrubland northeast of Kaitaia.
Two helicopters with monsoon buckets and eight ground crews had the blaze in the Lake Ohia-RampRd area near Tokerau Beach under control after eight hours although observation crews were monitoring the area last night.
Smoke could be seen over a wide area as the fire, on public conservation land, burned near Ramp Rd. A DoC spokeswoman said houses there had not been in immediate danger.
One sector of the blaze spread to sand dunes at Tokerau Beach before burning itself out and leaving long grass in a district council beach reserve untouched.
The 490ha Lake Ohia conservation reserve covers a lake bed containing 30,000-year-old kauri stumps, native orchids and rushes, the rare black mudfish, Northland green gecko, shore skinks and wetland birds.
The cause of the fire, the first serious outbreak on conservation land in the tinder-dry Far North this summer, was not known yesterday.
DoC says fire hazard conditions for scrub in the area are extreme. There is already a Far North District Council and DoC open fire ban in place and a permit is needed to light any fire within one kilometre of public land administered by the department.
