Crews on edge amid threat of fire weather
CANTERBURY FIREFIGHTERS remain on high alert today as hot and windy conditions bring the risk of more intense blazes across the region.
Fire crews remained all yesterday at the sites of two major fires south of Christchurch to dampen down hot spots and continue monitoring the situation.
Shift supervisor Riwai Grace said they were given respite from the heavy workload yesterday, but were ready in case more fires broke out.
‘‘All it takes is for the wind change and bang, we’re away.’’
Christchurch temperatures are expected to reach 29 degrees Celsius today, with hot nor-westerly winds fanning the city. However, some light rain is expected this afternoon, followed by a cooling south-westerly wind.
MetService duty forecaster
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Ian Gall said the wind change could bring a small amount of rain, and ‘‘ cloudy periods with lightish winds’’ could be expected tomorrow.
‘‘Not much respite, amounts to,’’ he said.
Thursday’s blaze in Prebbleton, Selwyn District, destroyed at least two houses and tore across 150 hectares of scrub and paddocks.
No one was injured, but the fire killed 18,000 laying hens and a number of livestock.
It could take fire investigators two or three weeks to establish the cause, but it was believed to have started on private land behind the Wheatsheaf Quarry in Selwyn Rd.
A second major scrub fire, near West Melton on Friday, forced the evacuation of about 300 people from a nearby raceway and blackened up to 100 hectares of pine plantation.
Fire crews returned to the site yesterday morning after it began
is
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it smouldering again, Grace said.
Reports of two fires within Bottle Lake Forest Park yesterday prompted nine crews to race to the scene, but the suspected smoke turned out to be dust.
Most of Canterbury is under fire restrictions, including Selwyn, where most of the blazes have broken out this past week.
Grace said anyone using anything that could cause a spark, including machinery such as grinders or welders, should take care. He also warned anyone considering setting off fireworks: ‘‘If you do start a fire, you are legally liable to pay for it.’’
Firefighters have also been kept busy with blazes in other parts of Canterbury. On Friday scrub fires broke out in Cust, Sockburn, Belfast and Ashburton, and a house was extensively damaged by fire in Bishopdale.
On Thursday, a suspicious fire gutted an Akaroa bakery, and police were speaking to a child following a fire at Beckenham School’s library.