Six-day plantation fire sparks warning

File photo / Alan Gibson

Anyone breaching fire restrictions in the Far North will be prosecuted, rural firefighters say.

The warning comes after a forest fire in a newly planted pine forest north of Hokianga, on the west coast of the North Island, took six days to bring under control.

Far North District Council principal rural fire officer Lance Johnston said the fire was deliberately lit.

"Someone lit it up and it has been quite a mission getting it out. We are treating it as arson. It was just dumb," he said.

"We haven't done our numbers on it yet but it would have been $10,000 worth of helicopter time, crews, machinery, bulldozers and stuff for six days."

No houses had been in danger "but another 1000ha of young pine plantation (was)".

The Far North had had very little rain and was rapidly drying out, he said. Fire restrictions were in place and fires could be lit only with a permit. However, gas barbecues were permitted.

Mr Johnston said there would be no hesitation in prosecuting anyone who lit fires without a permit or who failed to meet the conditions attached to all permits, including a watch for the duration of the fire, extinguishing it when they left, and having water at the fire.

Last summer a couple of visiting elderly English yachties paid $10,000 rather than go to court when a barbecue on the beach started a fire which destroyed regenerating bush and threatened homes worth millions of dollars in the Bay of Islands.

Mr Johnston said it was a costly error of judgment but it could have been a lot worse if the fire had not been contained. It also showed how serious the council was about pursuing people who caused fires.

The yachties had asked the fire authorities to bring their experience to the attention of boaties in the hope of preventing a repeat scenario.

- NZPA