Dozer blamed for big blaze
A Hawke’s Bay logging company owner is surprised a report into a 400-hectare fire that destroyed young forests at Tangoio has labelled his bulldozer’s faulty exhaust as the likely cause.
Wildfire investigating officer Donald Scott classed the January 6 fire as “accidental” and said the most likely cause of the fire were the carbon particles expelled from a defective exhaust system on a bulldozer owned by K& S Beard Logging.
That bulldozer was moved about 9am on January 6 from a location within a tree stand where it had been parked over the Christmas break.
“It is likely that these particles landed in fine dry forestry slash while the machine was being moved from under pine trees to the edge of Sutton Rd, a distance of about 100 metres,” Scott said.
Kerry Beard, owner of K& S Beard Logging, which had the faulty bulldozer on site, said he was under the impression the fire was caused by a cigarette butt.
“The wind was blowing so hard that day the fire definitely did not start from a spark from the bulldozer.”
Beard, who said he had not seen the report and had not been given access to it, said there was no point in arguing with the findings.
“We’ll definitely get the exhaust fixed on the bulldozer, and get the bulldozers cleaned out,” he said.
The report’s key evidence came from a mechanic who inspected the bulldozer on January 15, nine days after the start of the fire.
The mechanic found the exhaust system was in generally poor condition with a metal band partially covering a hole in the exhaust pipe.
There was evidence of exhaust gas leakage around this hole, with an area above the can blackened.
“The exhaust system on this machine is not in a very good condition,” the mechanic noted.
“The muffler has a considerable amount of damage from corrosion.
“As well as this the external pipe and joining flex pipe are ill fitting and have no clamps to secure.”
He also carried out a spark arrester test. A spark arrester is a device that prevents the emission of flammable debris from combustion sources, such as internal combustion engines, fireplaces, and wood burning stoves.
The machine failed the spark arrester test with more than 50 burns from carbon in the tester.
Scott said in the report that as a result of the mechanic’s inspection, he was confident the faulty exhaust provided the most likely source of ignition, which was then fanned by warm, dry, windy conditions.
Hawke’s Bay principal rural fire officer Trevor Mitchell, on site for most of the 11 days the fire was burning, acknowledged the hard work of volunteer firefighters involved who had to walk 15km a day over steep, charred terrain in full firefighting gear.
“The conditions were such that the forestry crew could not contain the fire with the resources they had, so we had firefighters on site every day until the fire was contained.”
Mitchell said the report’s faulty exhaust finding highlighted the fact that it doesn’t take a whole lot to start a huge fire.
“In dry conditions that’s very common,” he said.
“Fires on forestry land can quite often start due to maintenance-related issues in machinery, or rats, and the worst ones are starlings nesting in machinery.”
Fire and Emergency NZ representatives have been approached for comment about whether they intend to prosecute as a result of the report’s findings.
The exhaust system on this machine is not in a very good condition.
Mechanic