One home was destroyed overnight as fire crews plan for another tricky day battling the Tasman fire.
The farmer whose machinery is suspected to have sparked the devastating 1900-hectare Tasman blaze is "mortified", fire chiefs say.
FENZ incident controller John Sutton said it was almost certain the fire is the result of agricultural machinery.
The owner was "mortified", said Sutton who added it was a highly accidentalevent.
"A totally unintended consequence really," he said.
Sources told the Herald yesterday that the fire was sparked by a farmer tilling dry fields at around 2pm up Pigeon Valley near Wakefield, about 30km south of Nelson.
Shelters set up for pets and others volunteer to help
Non-profit group, Helping You Help Animals, was busy last night and this morning setting up a temporary care shelter for dogs or cats, whose owners may have been evacuated from their homes and had nowhere to keep their pets.
Nelson's A&P Showgrounds had been given over to the group to set up the shelter with the local kennel club bringing in crates and supplies.
The trust's Carolyn Press-McKenzie said she had heard that some dogs had possibly been left behind "and obviously cats can be tricky in a situation like this – you can't always predict they'll be where they need to be".
There were also reports alpacas and goats were going to be brought to the shelter today.
Some horses were already at the showgrounds, having been evacuated earlier by their owners.
Press-McKenzie said the shelter would provide care for a few days and could also help with minor injuries to pets or wildlife "with anything serious going through the local vets".
A HUHA vet was also flying in this morning to help.
But ultimately Press-McKenzie didn't know how busy the shelter would get.
"Nobody knows whether it is going to be a false alarm or an overwhelming situation, so it is better to be over-prepared than underprepared," she said.
"We know from our experience with the Christchurch earthquake that everyone rallies and when help is needed it is not hard to find."
Nelson local Jonathan Hardwick had also volunteered his services yesterday. Owning a large van, he drove to the emergency centres to offer to help deliver supplies or move the belongings of people who had evacuated from their homes.
However, he said he wasn't needed and that relief efforts seemed to be keeping up with demand.
Victoria from the town of Motueka, to the north-east of Nelson, has a day off today and has also put her name and phone number on a list of volunteers ready to help out today.
She'll jump in her car and help make sandwiches and food for firefighters and evacuees but said she hadn't got the call up yet.
PM to assess damage today
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will fly in today to survey the damage from a fire believed to have been accidentally started by a farmer ploughing about 30km south of Nelson on Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters battle after a blaze forced the evacuation of residents of 170 homes in the Tasman district. Photo / Getty Images
The Defence Force was called in to provide reinforcements for firefighters who had been battling the blaze for more than 30 hours. Nearly 50 firefighters were supported by 14 aircraft, which stopped flying yesterday evening while ground crews kept working through the night to contain the blaze.
At least two homes are believed to have been lost so far. But many residents had lucky escapes.
This is time lapse video from ***yesterday*** where our camera at the @niwa#Nelson office captured the smoke from the Pigeon Valley area fire moving from WSW to ENE.
Redwood Valley Rd resident Graeme Sutton was reluctantly evacuated on Tuesday night after noticing a "great plume of smoke ... shading the whole city".
"One or two farmers didn't want to leave," he said. "If I had a choice I would have stayed. You want to be there to defend it."
Firefighters battle the blaze at it reaches the edge of a property. Photo / Getty Images
His family were grateful their house had been spared, he said. They had packed photos among their belongings in case they lost their home.
Tasman deputy mayor Tim King fled his home of 48 years as smoke crept closer, and he fully expected it to burn to the ground. Firefighters doused the fire just 5m from his doorstep.
"The fire crews did an absolutely amazing job," he said.
David Horncastle lives in Pigeon Hill and his family home is next to a Carter Holt Harvey tree plantation.
"Last night the flames were really, really high. The wind was coming straight at our house but changed direction."
About 235 homes have been evacuated after the blaze broke out. Photo / Tim Cuff
He recruited a friend to make a fire break with a digger in case the flames swung back at his property. They left the property again last night, uncertain whether it would be safe.
"At 8pm the helicopters get parked up, they can't fly at night and don't start again until 6am in the morning. If any fires spark up in the night then we are on our own so we are also evacuating."
Georgina Pahl and her family were instructed by officials to leave their home on Tuesday night, just as they could see the glow of the fire in the distance.
She, her husband, Grant, and 11-year-old daughter left their home near the Moutere Highway just before midnight, when the fire was about 2km away.
Plumes of smoke could be seen from the fire in Pigeon Valley, Tasman. Photo / Supplied
"There's people in far worse situations," she said. "There's people further up the road from us. I'm aware from verbal reports from others there are definitely people we know who have lost their houses and people up Redwood Valley have got a lot more to deal with than us.
"We have got away lightly at this point in time and there's a lot of people that still don't know what's happening."
The fire's growth slowed yesterday afternoon and fire crews were confident it could be further contained as long as the wind did not pick up again. A second fire which broke out at Rabbit Island near Nelson yesterday afternoon spread over 10 hectares before being contained.
The fire in the Tasman District has now spread to 1900 hectares. Photo / Tim Cuff
There was unlikely to be any help from the weather because no further rain was forecast for the bone-dry region, which has seen barely any rain in 40 days.
MetService meteorologist Rob Kerr said the area could get some rainfall on Sunday but the front heading there could lose its power before reaching Tasman.
He said January had been "remarkably" drier than last year. Only 6mm of rain had fallen last month, down from last year's total of 220mm when two tropical cyclones battered the country with rain and wind.
