Fireworks caused chaos across the country overnight. Photo / Paul Taylor
Fireworks caused chaos across the country overnight. Photo / Paul Taylor
While the country partied hard to welcome the new year, Fire and Emergency worked tirelessly to tackle numerous fires started from fireworks.
In what turned out to be a hectic New Years eve for firefighters, Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) at one stage managed 15 fire-related incidents across the country.
Over the course of last night, New Zealand’s firefighters evacuated several homes, tackled large house blazes and fought a fire on a cliff-face the size of a football field.
There was also a fire at an old school site, a scrub fire that almost reached people’s homes, fires in sand dunes at local beaches - all of which were reportedly caused by fireworks.
The official number of callouts over New Years Eve wasn’t tallied in the end by FENZ, while reports tailed off around 1.30am there were still seven New Years’ responses ongoing by 2am.
There were still seven New Years’ responses ongoing by 2am. Photo / Rafael Ben-Ari/Chameleons Eye
In Mārahau near Nelson, two homes were evacuated with firefighters battling a vegetation fire in difficult terrain. Nine fire crews were involved in putting the fire out when the clock struck 2.30am.
Meanwhile, an estimated 1.2ha of land in Dalefield near Arrowtown was engulfed in flames after three separate fires on steep terrain - all caused by fireworks.
A cliff face blaze the size of a football field burned away and continued to grow in Aramoana near Dunedin, meanwhile, a fire sparked at an old school site near Queenstown was extinguished in the end by local campers.
Fire trucks were dispatched to the remote Skippers reserve, but crews could not reach the site because of weight restrictions on the only access road. Many campers were reported to be leaving the area due to the fire.
In the North Island there were multiple incidents, the most serious of which was a scrub fire started by fireworks at Mahurangi East, where six crews worked away from 11pm to keep the blaze from reaching homes.
A fire sparked at an old school site near Queenstown was extinguished in the end by local campers.. Photo / Thinkstock
A large blaze at Puhoi saw eight crews reach the site by foot and work away until 1.30am, as they couldn’t drive to the location, while a vegetation fire in Oriental Bay, Wellington saw fire crews briefly escalate the incident to second alarm level before scaling it back.
Meanwhile, in Tauranga, three crews were called to deal with a fire in the roof of a house, reportedly ignited by fireworks - which also caused a fire close to a house in Kelston.
A fire on the roof of the civic administration building in Palmerston North kept fire units busy last night while another occurred where seats in Edwards Pit park were ablaze, both were reportedly caused by fireworks.
As grass caught fire in New Plymouth and sand dunes burned away in Waitarere Beach, Horowhenua it was clear there was a pattern emerging - most ongoing fire incidents were caused by irresponsible firework use.
Communications Centre Shift Manager Murray Dunbar said the number and scale of incidents overnight reinforced that fireworks posed a high fire risk and had to be used responsibly and sensibly.
“Fire and Emergency has been saying this for a long time. People using fireworks have to look at the conditions,” he said.
“Things like wind and the proximity to material that can catch fire easily. If the conditions aren’t right, then don’t light.”
