Tyre blaze was ‘bizarre’ - owner
A Taranaki landowner on whose rural property a massive tyre fire erupted, sending thick black smoke over a wide area, has disputed eye witness reports that the number of tyres stored on site was close to 300,000.
Linda Jackson, who with partner Trevor Elsworth owns an agricultural contracting business north of New Plymouth, said she was unsure how many tyres there were in the pile which caught alight on Wednesday and burned for almost six hours.
‘‘I’d say there were about 5000 tyres but there definitely wasn’t 300,000, it wasn’t even 100,000, as some people believed,’’ she said.
Black smoke drifted from the Manutahi Rd farmlet over neighbouring properties up to five kilometres away when the large pile of stacked used tyres caught fire about 2pm.
The tyres were used for farm silage pits after the hay had been cut, she said.
‘‘We’ve had the tyres for a few years but we don’t store them, we use them for our clients.’’
An employee of the couple, Quintin Ross, said fire started from a small rubbish fire which spread on to nearby dry gorse alongside the tyre pile.
The fire was ‘‘extremely bizarre’’, she said.
The couple, along with Ross and several friends, spent a harrowing afternoon after the alert was sounded herding terrified miniature horses, which the couple breed, from nearby paddocks to safety.
‘‘It looked very impressive and some of the stuff we have read on social media is so far from the truth it’s laughable,’’ Jackson said on Thursday.
‘‘One person said we lost six tractors, well we didn’t lose any tractors.
‘‘All we lost was power to the property when the transformer shed caught alight.
‘‘We’ve still got the house, and my horses and stables weren’t affected.’’
The extreme conditions, which saw air temperatures reaching to the high 20s, and a steady south west breeze, made it difficult to contain the blaze until fire crews arrived.
Large numbers of people who had seen the smoke cloud from New Plymouth, 15 kilometres away, lined numerous vantage points along Manutahi Rd for a glimpse of the fire.
New Plymouth Fire and Emergency assistant commander Rob Karaitiana estimated the tyre stack was approximately 3000 cubic metres.
Fire crews worked to protect surrounding property and make sure if the wind changed direction it did not spread the fire towards the family home, 50 metres away.
The smoke and fumes did not present a toxic hazard, he said.
At the height of the fire three fire appliances, two water tankers and several incident command vehicles were at the scene.
Small explosions could also be heard coming from the property.
The fire was brought under control after 2 1/2 hours and some crews stood down.
It was eventually extinguished at 8pm, almost six hours after it caught alight.
Firefighters were called back on Thursday to extinguish a small grass fire on the property but away from the tyres.
Trevor Elsworth said having no power made it impossible to put the fire out.
‘‘We got a big pond with millions of litres of water but no way of pumping it through hoses,’’ he said.
Taranaki Regional Council resource management director Fred McLay said the landowner was not using the site to store large numbers of tyres.