Firefighters gain control in south

Rural landowners are being urged to check wind forecasts carefully before setting fire to paddocks of stubble or rubbish as firefighters battle several blazes that have encroached on conservation land.

Department of Conservation staff and rural firefighters were yesterday gaining control of two major fires in Southland and North Canterbury that have damaged more than 100ha of conservation land.

Gale-force and gusty northwesterly winds over the weekend fanned fires in the Catlins area of Southland and the Lochiel conservation area near Hanmer Springs. Both fires are blamed on farm burn-offs that got out of control in the strong winds.

Firefighters yesterday afternoon had managed to get the Catlins blaze in the Te Rara Reserve "quiet and contained" after battling it in all weather since Thursday.

DoC Otago fire controller John Pearce said the fire had not spread beyond 40ha of the 84ha reserve.

"I wouldn't say that it's under control, but it's as good as we're going to get with the nature of the vegetation," Mr Pearce said.

The fire had burnt through stands of rimu, some rata, silver beech, shrubs and undergrowth.

Fire crews were working through smouldering hot-spots dotted throughout the reserve and were expected to continue the work for several days.

Fires at Henley, in Otago, in the Ruataniwha Conservation Park of the Mackenzie Basin and at Mt Peel in South Canterbury were under control and being monitored.

In the Lochiel area south of Hanmer Springs, the blaze burnt through about 150ha, including 60ha of tussock and scrub on conservation land.

DoC firefighters had contained the fire and were mopping up hot-spots.

DoC's Canterbury senior technical fire officer, Tony Teeling, said firefighters were calling for rural communities to act cautiously after spending the first official weekend of spring "jumping from one fire to the next".

Mr Teeling said there was "no excuse" for an increase in out-of-control burn-offs because the nor'west winds arrived every spring and behaved in the same way.

"Some landowners are using short lulls in the nor'west wind cycles to light up and are not giving themselves enough time to complete the burning before winds pick up."

- NZPA