Large scrub fire at Whanganui’s South Mole contained by fire crews

Fire and Emergency NZ crews have contained a large scrub fire that started at Whanganui's South Mole on Sunday night. Photo / Castlecliff, Wanganui Facebook page

Fire and Emergency NZ crews have contained a large scrub fire at Whanganui’s South Mole.

Emergency services were called to the scene near Whanganui Airport at 8pm on Sunday.

Fire and Emergency assistant commander and risk reduction adviser Nick West said the blaze has reached across an area about 6ha and has been contained.

“Crews got to work, initially, with suppression activities, access was very limited and quite poor so they achieved what they could achieve before moving into monitoring mode for the evening,” West said.

Crews went into monitoring mode around 1am, as the tide was coming in, West said.

At 10am on Monday there were 10 ground vehicles from Whanganui, Koitiata, Manawatū and Palmerston North Volunteer Fire Brigade, supported by one helicopter.

Crews are working with hand tools around the containment line to ensure the fire is fully extinguished

“We want to remind people that, even though we have had a spell of wet weather come through, it won’t take a lot of sunny weather for things to dry up again,” West said.

“We want to encourage people to be safe when they are outdoors and to visit the checkitsalright.nz website.”

The cause of the fire is undetermined, and an investigation is underway.

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.