Fire crews fly to Chathams to battle blaze

Fire crews from New Zealand will fly to the Chatham Islands today to help fight a blaze that has burned about 60 hectares of conservation and farmland.

The fire started yesterday in the 422 hectare Wharekauri conservation area which forms part of an extensive peat swamp on the islands.

Department of Conservation acting area manager for the Chatham Islands Ken Hunt said the fire was reported by a farmer early yesterday afternoon and recently spread from conservation land to farmland.

Local volunteer fire fighters fought the blaze using water from a creek but the fire had moved away from the water supply during the night and crews were stood down.

Crews from New Zealand were due to head to the islands to lend support to locals, who were at times faced with a front up to 2km wide burning through scrub up to 2m high.

Mr Hunt said about 60 hectares had been burned by this morning.

- NZPA