Two massive fires in the Rotorua and Taupo areas have prompted a warning from the Fire Service that lives are at risk in these dry and hot conditions.
A fire at Broadlands 20km north of Taupo at 1pm yesterday burnt about 15ha of private farm land and a
plantation of pine trees.
Senior station officer Jim Prescott of the Rotorua Fire Service said firefighters were also called just before 9am to a controlled burn-off in Ngongotaha which had got out of control.
The fire destroyed almost 1ha of scrub and threatened a home, although no one was there at the time. The fire also came close to spreading to a pine tree block.
Fire safety officer Stuart Bootten said the cause of the Broadlands fire, which appeared to have started on private farm land on Allen Rd, was yet to be determined.
He said the fire ripped through the farm property destroying vegetation alongside a river as well as heading up a hill and destroying newly planted pine trees in the Kaingaroa Forest.
Mr Bootten said there were two likely causes of the fire.
It could have been a burn-off that got out of control or it could have been caused by a previous burnout from two months ago re-igniting.
The farmer at the property told the Fire Service he didn't light a fire yesterday.
"There is a slim possibility a log has still been smouldering under the ground and with the warm weather we have had the embers have flared up and set fire to the slash, which is all the dead trees that have been cut and left to dry out," Mr Bootten said.
Three trucks from Rotorua and two from Taupo attended and firefighters were putting the blaze out until 7pm.
Mr Bootten said it was the biggest fire he had seen in the Rotorua and Taupo area for a long time.
The recent unseasonable hot weather has meant the Central North Island is now in a restricted fire season - which means no fires can be lit in rural areas without getting a permit.
Mr Bootten said we were in "dangerous times" and the messages were simple.
"If you light a fire, it's got to be in the right circumstance.
The one at Hamurana was in the line of a house but luckily the wind was going the other way. At the moment it's just good luck that we have not lost property or life."
Meanwhile, another fire yesterday burned around 800ha around the Waiouru Army Camp. It has now been contained.
Massive fires prompt warning: Lives at risk
Two massive fires in the Rotorua and Taupo areas have prompted a warning from the Fire Service that lives are at risk in these dry and hot conditions.
A fire at Broadlands 20km north of Taupo at 1pm yesterday burnt about 15ha of private farm land and a
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