Road crashes, fires and flase alarms kept Wairarapa firefighters on the go over the long weekend. PHOTO/FILE
Road crashes, fires and flase alarms kept Wairarapa firefighters on the go over the long weekend. PHOTO/FILE
Wairarapa fire crews were kept bustling during the long weekend with emergencies throughout the region.
Fire communications supervisor David Miekle said Carterton volunteer firefighters were scrambled to the first of two crashes on State Highway 2 near the town after a hatchback was seen to veer across the road atWest Taratahi before hitting a ditch, rolling and ploughing through a fence.
Police said the driver is suspected to have had a medical event and received minor injuries in the crash.
Firefighters were 40 minutes later sent to the scene of a controlled burn at Ponatahi after reports of smoke were received, Mr Miekle said, and an hour later again were scrambled to a call involving a bonfire at Gladstone.
A Carterton fire crew was called to douse a chimney fire in the town shortly before 9pm on Saturday, and firefighters were at the scene of a road crash about 10.30am the next day after a man in his 60s lost control of his vehicle on SH2 near the town. He received suspected chest injuries.
Masterton firefighters attended a high speed head-on crash near Mt Bruce just over an hour later that has since claimed two lives, while a Carterton crew were sent to an emergency in the town just after 3.30pm on Sunday.
Masterton crews were next scrambled to a couple of fires that broke out in the more northerly town on Sunday with the first reported just after 7.30pm and the second about 10 minutes later. Volunteer firefighters from Martinborough were sent to a blaze at a home about 8.30pm on Sunday.
