Large blaze in Gisborne forces evacuation

Photo / APN

Fire fighters are battling a large blaze in Titirangi park in Gisborne which has come within 20 metres of some houses.

Nine fire engines and four helicopters have been called in to fight the fire, which has been raging since just before 7pm.

People living in Oxford St, Norwood Rd and Turanga St were evacuated earlier in the evening as a precaution

Police are also asking people living nearby to remain indoors due to large amounts of smoke coming from the fire.

Ruby Aitken was told to leave her home just after 7pm as flames came within 20 metres of her Turanga St property.

"They evacuated the whole side of the street and told everyone to get out.''

Fire fighters walked down her driveway and made a hole in her back fence to get hoses through to the flames, which were approaching fast due to high winds.

"They sprayed the house and all over the ground and were standing at the fenceline with the hoses.''

Luckily for Ms Aitken and other residents, the wind direction changed which pushed the flames away from Turanga St and towards Kaiti Hill.

Ms Aitken says the fire didn't appear to be threatening at first.

"At the beginning it wasn't [big], we just thought it was nothing and it was going to stop reasonably soon,'' Ms Aitken says. "But the wind just took it and when it was really windy they [the flames] were just huge.''

"You couldn't go outside, it was just black [due to smoke], almost nigh time. You couldn't see or breath - it was quite bad.''

Ms Aitken was allowed to return to her house at 9pm.

Fire Service central communications shift manager Murray Dunbar says the fire is under control, but crews are still working to extinguish it.

"In the beginning we were receiving quite a lot of 111 calls from all over Gisborne, but they've died away.''

The cause of the fire is still unclear, Mr Dunbar says.