Water tankers used to battle blaze

Firefighters used five tankers of water to quell a fierce haybarn blaze near Rolleston, south of Christchurch, early today.

Station officer Cameron Kenyon, of the Rolleston fire brigade, said the alarm was raised about 12.20am. When firefighters arrived at the property in Ellesmere Junction Rd, the haybarn was well ablaze.

Two fire crews manning pumps from Rolleston and Burnham, fought the blaze with water tankers also brought in from Lincoln and Dunsandel.

Mr Kenyon said there was no water source near the haybarn and with strong southerly winds forecast and embers flying about it was decided to douse the fire as quickly as possible. Firefighters had the blaze under control within half an hour.

The 30m by 15m haybarn was destroyed and hay was still smouldering late this morning, he said.

- NZPA