A major fire behind Blenheim continued to spread last night, destroying one house and jumping State Highway 1.
The inferno, fanned by hot, blustery winds and temperatures topping 30 degrees, swept across 1000ha of the Wither Hills directly behind the town. Several families were evacuated but firefighters were protecting several other houses last night.
The main concern was southeast of Blenheim. A house near Redwood Pass had already been destroyed as the fire headed over Weld Pass and towards the east coast. Traffic on State Highway 1, which was stopped earlier yesterday, had to be shifted back last night as the fire came closer to the road.
The large tract of farmland burned included a big vineyard in Seventeen Valley.
The firefighters, who had been battling blazes in Marlborough all day, were having to cover several fronts of the fire last night, helped by volunteers and helicopters. The blaze had leaped one firebreak.
Flames had also knocked out a television transmitter for Marlborough and were burning around the national grid pylons along a 5km front.
A group of walkers trapped on a ridge by the flames yesterday afternoon escaped injury or death when a helicopter plucked them to safety.
Two of them, Blenheim couple Don and Hilary Henry, were on a walkway behind Blenheim when they saw smoke. "We knew the fire was coming up the hill," said an exhausted Mr Henry after his rescue.
"We saw it was racing us." The couple turned and fled back up the pathway with walkers Aaron Stobie of Blenheim and Nigel McNamara of Wellington.
"We just beat the fire to the top of the hill."
Witnesses saw ridge tops explode in flame 50m high. One said the fire, which broke out mid-afternoon, leaped from ridge to ridge. "There are stands of trees along the ridges and as the fire reaches them they just explode, " she said.
"The cloud is just like a volcanic cloud to the south of the town. It looks like Mt St Helens [the huge 1980 volcanic eruption in the United States]."
- NZPA
Fire rages by Blenheim
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