KEY POINTS:
A fire which took more than 55 firefighters to battle was the biggest of several scrub blazes around the country yesterday as temperatures soared and winds picked up.
The fire, on Grice Rd near Wellsford, spread from a controlled burn on farmland from about 4pm. A helicopter dropped monsoon buckets of water on the 200m by 500m area.
About 11 tankers or pumps came from Wellsford, Silverdale, Kaiwaka, Warkworth, Matakana, Ahuroa, Puhoi, Mangawhai. and a command unit was called from Auckland City.
Meanwhile firefighters accessed railway tracks to reach a fire on a farm on Paerata Rd in Pukekohe from about 2pm. Northern fire communications centre shift manager Jaron Phillips said the blaze, which reached the railway sleepers, had also started from some sort of controlled burn-off. About five fire appliances attended.
It was the second fire to close the railway lines at Pukekohe in a month. On October 21, a fire started in the switch room of the railway station and spread to the building's upper floor.
Police yesterday also asked motorists to delay travel out of Wellington because a scrub fire on State Highway 2 was slowing northbound traffic.
Several houses were last night being evacuated on the Kapiti Coast as a bush fire burned out of control. The fire began in scrub near a school on Leinster Ave in Raumati, Inspector Marty Parker from police central communications said.
He said the fire was "out of control" and threatening several properties, which were being evacuated.
And on Saturday afternoon two scrub fires closed South Island roads. State Highway 1 at Hinds, Ashburton, and State Highway 97 at Five Rivers, 93km north of Invercargill, were shut.
Mr Phillips said firefighters attended about 113 scrub fires around the country - 20 in Auckland - between Friday night and 6.30pm yesterday.
"It does seem like a high number over a weekend."
Temperatures were the highest in the South Island, with Timaru, Oamaru, Dunedin, Alexandra and Ashburton all reaching over 30C.
The North Island's hottest centre was Gisborne at 26C.
MetService forecaster Kathleen Kozyniak said Auckland's average temperature was about 20C and northeasterly gusts were travelling 55km/hr. "It's a decent wind, you definitely know which way it's coming from.
"It probably doesn't help [putting out fires] but it's not a really strong wind."
A front moving off the South Island last night was expected to hit the North Island today bringing cooler temperatures.
