As of 5pm today, people need a permit to light a fire outdoors. Photo / 123rf
As of 5pm today, people need a permit to light a fire outdoors. Photo / 123rf
The Bay of Plenty, including Tauranga and Rotorua will move in to a restricted fire season at 5pm today.
A restricted fire season means a permit is required to light an open-air fire.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand community risk manager Luke Burgess said the recent warm and dryweather means the fire risk across the region has increased.
“In these conditions fire will travel fast and will be difficult for our crews to extinguish.
“Having a restricted fire season gives us greater control of who can burn and when, and we can provide direct fire safety advice to those completing burns.”
The restricted fire season would be in place until further notice.
The Bay of Plenty will move into a restricted fire season from 5pm today. The yellow on this map indicates the high-risk fire areas in the region. Image / Fire and Emergency New Zealand screenshot
Fire seasons
Fire seasons are used to inform people about the requirements for or restrictions on lighting fires in the open air, and to manage the use of fire to protect communities from the consequences of unwanted fire.
Fire and Emergency can declare or revoke a prohibited or restricted fire season in an area, and uses its fire seasons, prohibitions and restrictions policy and associated processes to manage this.
Fire seasons are applied to geographic zones based on:
-the fire environment (fuel types, curing, weather, topography, historic trends).
-fire climatic zones.
-topographical boundaries/features (rivers, roads, coast lines, forest and national park boundaries).
