Two lucky escapes with power poles near Kaitaia

The scene at the accident south of Kaitaia on State Highway 1 near Fryer Rd. Photo / Supplied

Kaitaia Fire and Emergency Services have been rushed off their feet in recent days, attending to everything from a puppy in distress to narrow misses with power poles.

Since Friday (November 19) the Kaitaia brigade has been called out nine times, with a rubbish fire that spread to scrub at Paparore on Friday, a controlled burnoff early Saturday morning and a two-vehicle accident at the junction of West Coast Rd and Far North Rd Kaitaia later that afternoon.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Kaitaia Fire and Emergency Services were called to an accident east of Pukepoto, whereby a vehicle had left the road, entered a drain, and ploughed through a fence, narrowly missing a power pole by just over half a metre.

Fortunately, the occupant of that accident escaped with no injuries.

A man has also escaped serious injury following a nasty collision with a power pole just outside Kaitaia yesterday morning.

The accident occurred around 7:55am near 7475 State Highway 1, just south of Kaitaia, after Fryer Rd, where a vehicle struck a power pole with its rear end after attempting to negotiate a corner in the road.

According to Beddows, it appeared the vehicle's driver had lost control on a piece of road notorious for being tricky, particularly when wet.

"It appears as though the driver has lost control and has gone into the drain on the right-hand side of the road, before hitting a culvert and spinning around to hit a power pole with the rear end of his car," Beddows said.

"The pole is still standing, but the force from the accident knocked the wire off the top of the pole which made it spark.

"Top Energy attended the scene very quickly afterwards and were working on it when we left."

Beddows said the driver was very lucky to escape injury and had even managed to get out of the vehicle by himself.

He was seen speaking to the police when the Kaitaia Fire unit arrived at the scene.

Traffic Management was set up to deal with the situation and the road was closed to one lane in both directions.

St John Ambulance confirmed it had dispatched a unit, however, staff were advised en route they were no longer required.

Beddows said several accidents had occurred at the same corner over the years and served as a reminder for people to drive carefully in wet conditions.

Three separate calls were also made on Tuesday, with an unusual callout to assist a puppy with its head stuck in a fence first-up in the morning.

The puppy had managed to wedge its head through a steel gate and could be heard yelping as it tried to get out again.

The owners tried to use soap to help slip the dog's head through, to no avail.

Kaitaia Chief Fire Officer Craig Rogers managed to release the despondent puppy from the fence in about five minutes with the use of bolt cutters, much to the delight of everyone involved.

Following that rescue, there was a callout to a grass fire in Trigg Rd, Houhora which had spread from a burnoff, but which the Houhora brigade dealt with and the Kaitaia appliance was stood down en route.

There was one more small grass fire that spread from a burnoff in Sandhills Rd at Ahipara, where the tanker was dispatched to support Ahipara's fire crew.

"Our message to the public is while it's safe to burn-off in rural areas, the dry weather and wind need to be taken into consideration at all times," Rogers said.