Flames force residents to evacuate

Police evacuated several households last night as firefighters battled a deliberately lit scrub fire on the outskirts of Whangarei - the latest in a series of suspicious fires in Northland.

It took four hours for about 40 rural fire officers to bring the 2ha fire on Mt Parihaka under control, allowing residents to return home.

About 18 people in 10 homes are thought to have been affected.

The blaze is the third major fire in Northland this year, following one in Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, on January 2 and another started by stray fireworks near Mangawhai on Saturday night.

It is also the latest of more than a dozen fires in recent weeks, which have seen Whangarei's Quarry Gardens torched three times since November 19.

The spate has led police to believe yesterday's blaze was not an accident, though they are not saying at this stage that Northland has a firebug on its hands.

"We're certainly concerned at the number of fires, and they have the propensity to be very dangerous," said Whangarei Detective Shane Mawston.

Although the fires had not caused any deaths, he said the areas of scrub that had been targeted were very close to people's homes.

"It's been dry up here for weeks and one wind change and it [the fire] can go anywhere. It doesn't take much to get out of control and suddenly people's lives are at risk."

There are fire bans throughout much of Northland because of dry conditions.

Fire officers arrived at Mt Parihaka about 3.45pm to find 1ha of bush ablaze, 500m away from houses on Memorial Drive.

The blaze was quickly contained until gusty 15km/h to 20km/h winds refuelled it in the early evening, causing embers to catch alight in a nearby council-owned forestry block.

Though the winds blew the fire away from Memorial Drive, police evacuated about 20 people from a dozen homes as a precaution while several more were put on standby.

They would return to their homes before nightfall as long as the fire remained under control, police said.

Ms Midson said the air had been suffocating.

"All you could see was smoke. We're not talking of great big tree-sized flames, but there's a lot of ash and a lot of very thick smoke ... thick with ashes and embers."

The fire had been contained about 7.30pm, but Ms Midson said the winds were still flukey.

About the same time the fire was reported, another suspicious blaze in Glinks Gully, south of Dargaville, was burning through about 7ha of bush.

No one was injured and it was under control last night, as was a third fire at a disused sawmill in Kaikohe, which could take weeks before being fully extinguished.

Kaikohe chief fire officer Bill Hutchinson said the 1.5ha blaze, off Taheke Rd, could continue to burn through sawdust 5m to 6m deep in the ground, and the Fire Service would continue monitoring it.

Another scrub fire in Kaeo, north of Kaikohe, was controlled by local residents until the Fire Service arrived.

A Fire Service spokeswoman said resources were stretched but they had coped.

Northland fires
* Yesterday's scrub fire at Mt Parihaka is the third major fire in Northland this year.
* An arsonist is suspected of lighting three fires in Whangarei's Quarry Gardens since November.
* Police say the Mt Parihaka fire was deliberate but have not linked it to the earlier Whangarei fires.