Rotorua fire risk higher than location of Napier forest fire

Fire service authorities say the fire risk in the Bay of Plenty is higher than in the Napier area, where a forest fire razed 300 hectares of land this week.

More than 65 firefighters at points worked to tame the blaze north of Napier that started last Monday.

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Steve Webb is the operations co-ordinator and deputy principal rural fire officer of rural fire authority Pumicelands.

He said the fire risk in the Bay was higher than the Napier fire area, according to Niwa's fire weather index.

"Our risks are higher up here than down [in Napier], and they just lost 300 hectares of forest."

He said the dry conditions were not uncommon for summer, but the drop in temperatures this year could mislead people to think the fire risk had, too.

"It just takes one person to make a mistake."

People could still get a fire permit but people were asked to be vigilant and adhere to the permit conditions.

Agriculture and horticulture farmers were also urged to check their machinery was clean and that they had water close by to put out any sparks.

Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty provincial president Darryl Jensen said pasture was "relatively green" but the situation could change quickly for farmers.

He said the rainfall the Western Bay experienced this week would only "settle the dust" and strong "drying winds" that sucked the moisture out of the soil also presented a challenge to farmers.

"It's a battle for farmers to maintain pasture quality as it tends to dry out and go stalky," he said.

Rotorua Lakes Council three waters services manager, Eric Cawte, said water consumption in Rotorua would be monitored closely as there was no significant rain forecast, but there were no plans for water restrictions at this stage in spite of the dry weather.

The council was seeing an increased consumption of water but it was able to meet the rising demand so far.

In 2019, the lowest monthly average consumption was 20,800 cubic metres per day in August, and the highest monthly average was 27,200 per day in February, while the average daily household consumption over the year is approximately 850 litres per day, Cawte said.

MetService communications meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the next month brought a mixed bag of weather forecasts.

Temperatures had been increasing this week in the Bay of Plenty, with this weekend expected to be warm and settled.

Next week would start off with a couple of short-lived showers but, overall, the week looked like it would be drier than normal with temperatures above the average temperature of 23C for January. A ridge of high pressure would bring settled weather, light winds and sea breezes.

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