Fire crews battle blaze after Dunedin homes evacuated

More than 100 homes were evacuated in the Dunedin suburb of Ravensbourne early today after strong wind re-ignited a scrub fire in the area.

The fire flared up in the Signal Hill area overnight, two weeks after the original fire.

Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken said residents closest to the fire were woken in the early hours of this morning and shifted to temporary evacuation centres at the Ravensbourne Rugby Club and Dunedin North Intermediate.

Rural fire officer and incident controller Trevor Booth said this morning that the fire was being contained by helicopters and ground crews, but it was not known when evacuated Signal Hill Rd residents would be able to return home.

Others in lower parts of Ravensbourne had been able to return home following early morning evacuations.

Mr Booth said fire breaks were being developed to stop the fire spreading if the wind direction changed.

"It's still very windy, there has been no change and we expect it to turn more westerly with the same wind speeds and very high temperatures for the rest of the day.

"We're just concerned about a drastic change in wind direction, which would be a major problem for us."

Mr Booth said when emergency services were alerted to the fire at about 4am it was already 21C.

Mr Aitken earlier said strong winds were fanning the flames towards the evacuated houses but they didn't appear to be in immediate danger.

The fire was at that stage being monitored in case more evacuations were needed in other areas.

The first fire in the Signal Hill area was discovered over two weeks ago and firefighters said it was not clear how it started. It was extinguished, but flared up a few days later.

The strong gales, which blew a large section of roof off a two-storey classroom block at Timaru Boys' High School early yesterday, were expected to continue today.

MetService said parts of Southland, Otago and Canterbury were particularly exposed, but there were also strong winds in parts of the lower east coast of the North Island.

There have been reports of fencing being blown over in affected areas and the MetService warned high-sided vehicles and motorcyclists to beware when travelling on roads exposed to wind.

- NZPA