Scrub fire ends school day early

Tea-tree immediately adjacent to Te Aniwaniwa Kohanga Reo was well ablaze yesterday afternoon.

Children at Te Aniwaniwa Kohanga Reo, and students at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Rangi Aniwaniwa, were bussed home early yesterday afternoon after fire broke out in scrub at the top of Quarry Road, near the eastern end of the Kaitaia airport runway.

Appliances from the Kaitaia and Mangonui fire brigades had arrived by edition time, and while the scrub was still burning, with a strong nor-east wind pushing the flames towards the airport, neither the kohanga nor the kura appeared to be threatened.

The fire appeared to have started in farmland to the east, the flames climbing the hill and crossing the road.