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A massive fire northwest of Dunedin has so far razed 400 hectares of forest land and is so big in places firefighters can not get near it.
Residents from three houses were evacuated last night as the Wenita Forest blaze closed in on their homes, threatened powerlines and held up the Taieri Gorge train trip.
It began about 3.30pm yesterday, possibly ignited by logging equipment, Wenita Forest Products Ltd chief executive Dave Cormack told the Otago Daily Times.
Ten helicopters with monsoon buckets were dousing the area at the fringes of the blaze, but the main fire, which was ahead of the wind, was so large it was too dangerous for choppers and rural firefighters on the ground to get near, manager of civil defence and rural fires Neil Brown said.
"So that's going to have to be let run for the moment."
He said about half the burnt forest growing trees and half was cut-over.
"The cut-over is proving the most dangerous," Mr Brown said.
Ground crews would probably not be able to go into the area today because of safety concerns and access issues.
"And unfortunately the weather conditions are not favourable to us with reasonably high temperatures, low humidity and wind, but we're hoping the forecast of rain for later this evening will occur."
It wouldn't solve the problem, but would help, Mr Brown said.
The fire was not threatening the few houses in the area at the moment, but fire crews were keeping an eye out for wind changes.
Smoke billowing from the fire could be seen from Dunedin, about 30km away.
- NZPA
