Fire serves as warning

A blaze that destroyed a shed and contents including a four-wheel-drive and a boat on a rural property south of Kaitaia on Saturday afternoon should serve as a warning, Kaitaia's Chief Fire Officer Colin Kitchen said.

The building and its contents were well beyond saving by the time the first appliance arrived, Mr Kitchen saying it appeared that flames from a rubbish fire in a drum close to the shed spread to the building while the owner was absent.

Three appliances responded to the alarm, but the crews could do little more than dampen down the remains.

Mr Kitchen said no fire, even those contained within a drum or incinerator, should be set closer than 10 metres to any building.

"There should always be a 10-metre zone, or this is what's likely to happen," he said.

It should be sown in lawn or planted with less fire-prone species, while flammable materials, waste and combustible debris should be shifted further away.

"Obviously what happened here was accidental, but fire always has to be treated as potentially dangerous. And those who live in rural areas also need to be aware that they are at greater risk than those who live in urban areas.

"When a fire starts it might not be detected as quickly out in the country, and it will always take the brigade longer to get to a rural scene simply because of the distances involved. We responded to this fire in very good time, and it wasn't very far out of town, but there was nothing we could do when we got there."