Blaze serves as important reminder

Firefighters are amazed this Hihi house survived the first serious scrub fire of the season.

A fire which damaged a house at Hihi and left a woman with burns is a warning that the dangerous combination of dry vegetation and strong winds is back.

The first serious scrub fire of the season broke out at Hihi, Doubtless Bay, on Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters from Mangonui Fire Brigade, Taupo Bay and Karikari Rural Fire Forces managed to save the woman's house but helicopters equipped with monsoon buckets were needed to stop the blaze spreading up the peninsula. The fire, on steep terrain, was fanned by a stiff breeze.

Northern principal rural fire officer Myles Taylor said the home owner sustained minor burns to one arm and singed her fringe trying to stop the flames.

"How she didn't lose her house is beyond me," he said.

The poles of her house were burnt, the guttering melted and one window broke in the heat.

Mr Taylor said five helicopters were called out initially but three were stood down.

Although a fire ban was not yet in force Northlanders should be careful lighting fires in the current dry conditions and strong equinox winds. The same winds had fanned the Karikari blaze which killed ranger William Macrae and helicopter pilot "Prickles" de Ridder two years earlier.

The Hihi blaze, he said, was a reminder that the Rural Fire Authority would be hitting fires early and hard, and would expect fire starters to pay the firefighting costs.

A tough line last summer kept costs down and prevented a repeat of the disastrous 2011-12 fire season.

Mr Taylor said it did not need much imagination to work out what it cost to operate five helicopters.

He would not say what had caused the Hihi fire except that it started in vegetation around a house, then spread uphill into manuka and scrub.

The helicopters stopped it at a ridge.

Six firefighters remained at the scene yesterday to dampen down hot spots. That was expected to be scaled down to three today.