Clutha Valley firefighter Leonard Cunningham damps down the embers of a dairy farm shed after a significant scrub fire spread near Clydevale yesterday afternoon. Photo / Richard Davison
Clutha Valley firefighter Leonard Cunningham damps down the embers of a dairy farm shed after a significant scrub fire spread near Clydevale yesterday afternoon. Photo / Richard Davison
Rural fire officers have returned to the scene of a South Otago scrub fire to "mop-up" the area after farm sheds were razed by the blaze yesterday afternoon.
The Fire and Emergency New Zealand officers were assessing the scene near Clydevale today.
Otago principal rural fire officer Graeme Still said yesterday's operation had been successful, but a "mop-up phase" would continue today.
"Our crews will continue to contain any hotspots at the site, and monitor the situation until it can be declared safe."
As of 9.15am, heavy rain had begun to fall, with more than 10mm predicted during the day.
The fire began in a gully on a dairy farm about noon, and soon spread through an estimated 4ha-5ha of forestry ''slash'' across a front of 200m.
Firefighters were called at 12.23pm and, led by the Clutha Valley brigade, fought to contain the vegetation fire as well as fires in two neighbouring farm sheds on the property, sparked after embers were blown towards them by gale-force northwesterlies.
Firefighting efforts were hampered by thick clouds of acrid smoke, which had reduced initial visibility to ''zero'', Clutha Valley chief fire officer John Kee said.
"There were billows of smoke up as far as the road, and to begin with we just had to get the hell out of there, as we couldn't breathe.''
Kee summoned further regional brigades and, with breathing gear now in place, they returned to the scene.
''Quick action'' had saved the farm's milking shed, he said, although another two farm sheds had been damaged or destroyed.
Stock present at the time had also been moved to safety.
''We could see a lot of slash on fire from trees that had been felled in the gully, and our main concern was to contain things as far as possible, given the fierce winds. There's always a danger of fire jumping under these conditions, so we needed to spread our net as widely as possible.''
By the time the fire was contained about 2.30pm, several appliances, water trucks and more than 20 firefighters from eight regional brigades were involved, as well as two helicopters using monsoon buckets.
Kee praised the efforts of the region-wide team in preventing further damage.
''The boys have done a good job today, acting quickly and with good co-ordination as a team. Thanks to their hard work, no stock has been lost, and the main shed has been preserved.''
In addition to Clutha Valley, crews from Dunedin, Balclutha, Papatowai, Waiwera South, Gore, Waihola and Lawrence were involved in the operation.
Officials had not yet determined the cause of the fire.
Firefighters put out a small hedge fire in the Balclutha New World supermarket car park yesterday afternoon. Photo / John Cosgrove
Fire and Emergency spokeswoman Lyn Crosson said southern emergency services were yesterday called to two other large vegetation fires about 4pm which could be attributed to wind.
Firefighters were last night still controlling a 3ha fire at Cattle Flat, near Lumsden. They had also extinguished a fire at nearby Ardlussa. Both were controlled burnoffs which were spread by the wind.
No people were injured and no buildings were damaged.
