Marlborough's infernos tamed

The fires that have raged through Marlborough since Boxing Day finally appear to have been tamed.

Firefighters have been battling two major blazes that have left a trail of devastation behind a front of up to 60km.

The main fire, which broke out in the Wither Hills behind Blenheim, swept across more than 6500ha, destroying farmland and wiping out stock.

Fire command spokesman Steve Jones said more than 4200ha of pasture had been destroyed.

Another fire 40km south of Blenheim near Ward has burned through 540ha of mostly steep farmland.

However, fire chiefs said last night that the fires were well under control.

About 20 firefighters were to be kept on duty overnight to watch for flare-ups on the smouldering land.

Federated Farmers president David Dillon said it was too early to say how many stock had been lost.

After visiting three of the farms worst affected, he put the losses at between 3000 and 4000 sheep and more than 100 cattle, although he said figures were still uncertain.

Stock losses were unlikely to be covered by insurance, he said.

The Government minister on duty at Parliament over the Christmas break, Marian Hobbs, said the Coalition at this stage was not promising any direct assistance to farmers affected by the fires.

"But we'll have to examine the issue rather than just leap in, so it's too hasty for me to say, 'Yes, assistance is available'."

Besides stock losses, farmers are faced with having to replace hundreds of kilometres of fences and also water pipes.

Mr Dillon, who spent Wednesday fighting grass fires in the Awatere Valley, said he was amazed at the extent of the devastation.

"It's the biggest fire in Marlborough in my lifetime," he said.

Much of Marlborough was a tinderbox waiting to explode, Mr Dillon said, and he was stunned more firebreaks had not been put in.

On the Wither Hills, farmer Mark Smith is counting his stock losses.

His farm was worst hit when the blaze broke out, with more than 1700 sheep and 25 cattle being killed.

The deputy chief of the Seddon Volunteer Fire Brigade, Justin Stevens, said strong winds had made the fires difficult and dangerous to combat.

"The wind was blowing it up and swirling it around. The flames would be six feet in front of you, then all of a sudden two feet to the side and you'd just about be in them."

Firefighters said the region's vineyards had been spared but an olive grove suffered some minor damage and outbuildings were destroyed.

Investigators yesterday were closing in on the point where the fires started. Jock Durragh, investigator for the National Rural Fire Authority, said he and police had narrowed down the place where the fire started to a 5 sq m patch of blackened grass near the Wither Hills Walkway carpark.

Mr Durragh said he believed it was from that point that the massive fire swept up over the Withers and raged out of control for thousands of hectares.

He said he could not confirm or deny that a discarded cigarette butt had caused the infernos.

Meanwhile, weather forecasters say the Marlborough firefighters are unlikely to get any respite from heavy rain predicted for the west of the country in the next few days.

The fire risk across eastern parts of the country remained high as the northwesterlies dried out vegetation.

Chief Rural Fire Officer Murray Dudfield said the weather had left Marlborough extremely vulnerable and the fire risk was rapidly increasing in northern Canterbury and Hawkes Bay. The fire risk in Dargaville and Hokianga was also very high.

- NZPA