Far North firefighters call for help

Exhausted Far North Department of Conservation firefighters have implemented a seldom-used emergency fire system, calling in help from throughout the upper North Island in an effort to extinguish a huge blaze.

A fire has been burning over more than 80ha at Kaimaumau since Wednesday, stretching firefighting resources in the Far North as the district suffers from near-drought conditions.

The situation at Kaimaumau is so bad that the Fire Service has activated its little-used Regional Incident Management Team (RIMT) plan. This calls for rural firefighters from the rest of the upper North Island to help in Kaimaumau if possible.

Two fire trucks of DoC staff from Auckland have already been dispatched to help, a Fire Service spokesman said.

This was only the second time the RIMT system had been implemented in the upper North Island in the past four years, he said.

Suspicious fires initially broke out on private land off Kaimaumau Rd, north of Kaitaia, on Wednesday afternoon. The fires then joined together.

Volunteer firefighters and rural fire parties were joined by DoC staff on Thursday when the flames crossed into the Lake Waikaramu Conservation Area. The fire has claimed about 80ha of conservation land so far and firefighters fear that only heavy rain will finally douse the flames.

The blaze is the second on DoC land in the past two weeks, after 100ha were destroyed at Puwheke Recreational Reserve.

It is also the sixth fire on Far North conservation land since January. The combined total of habitat lost is more than 400ha.

The spokesman said the whole of Northland was so parched that dry vegetation was causing problems - seven other small vegetation fires flared during the weekend.

Some of the blazes might have been started by discarded cigarette butts.

- NZPA