Firefighters retreat from Carterton forest blaze

High winds forced firefighters to retreat from a blaze in a pine forest near Carterton yesterday afternoon.

Carterton fire chief Wayne Robinson said the winds and dry conditions re-ignited a months-old pine harvesting waste site in the Kaipatangata Forestry Block, on Dalefield Rd.

A Carterton crew of firefighters were first on the scene about 2.30pm, Mr Robinson said.

He said Masterton and Carterton firefighters and a small rural firefighting party were also fighting the blaze, before high winds and dangerous conditions forced the more than 20 firefighters to abandon the site.

"We were there for two or three hours before we pulled the pin. It was just too dangerous," he said.

He said smoke from the blaze was drifting throughout Carterton by late yesterday afternoon and "the whole town is stinking".

Phill Wishnowsky, principal rural fire officer for the Wairarapa Rural Fire District, said there was only a single road to and from the scene of the blaze and the high winds had exposed the firefighters to significant danger.

"It was a struggle just to stand up out there and the only track in and out is surrounded by fire fuel," he said.

The rural firefighting party remained at the scene of the fire, which was near the Kaipatangata Water Treatment Plant, to monitor the blaze overnight, he said.

The block, owned by Carterton District Council, comprises about 100ha of mature pine trees, near the foothills of the Tararua Ranges. An excavator that was already on site was to be joined this morning by another heavy machine to "log by log" take apart and douse the pile of waste that had ignited.

He said the high winds were a serious threat for a helicopter using a monsoon bucket and that "any pilot brave enough to go up in that would have been killed by now".