Te Mata Peak fire difficult to battle
A fire trapped several people at the top of Havelock North’s Te Mata Peak before firefighters put out the blaze.
On Thursday night, seven to eight carloads of people had no choice but to stay in the top car park while 30 firefighters doused the fire in the steep valley below.
The smell of burnt grass lingered over the western side of Hawke’s Bay’s natural icon as firefighters make their way back to the scene yesterday morning to conduct an investigation into the fire’s cause.
Rural firefighter Gordon Foster said it was possible that fireworks could have been the cause, but he could not be certain.
‘‘We won’t be able to determine the cause until we’ve fully investigated,’’ he said.
‘‘People were stuck up there quite a while until we had got the fire under control enough to let them down. Smoke was going right across the road.’’
Foster said no-one was injured in the fire.
Three urban and three rural fire trucks and 30 crew members were sent up Te Mata Peak after emergency services received the call about 7pm on Thursday.
‘‘Given its location, the fire was very difficult to put out. We had to fight it from the road, but eventually we managed to get some people down the walking track and they were able to fight it from down there.’’
Foster again reminded people of the upcoming restricted fire season on November 11 and encouraged people to check the FENZ website should they need to obtain a permit.
It’s the second fire in Hawke’s Bay this week. Crews were also called out to Porangahau, Central Hawke’s Bay, to battle a forestry fire.
Two helicopters were used to fight the fire due to its steep and isolated location.
Foster said the fire was due to a ‘‘burnoff’’ lit by the landowner.
‘‘Things are starting to get very dry, we’d just ask people to take extreme care before lighting fires at this time’’.
Te Mata Park Trust manager Emma Buttle said the fire was in a U shape when she saw it.
‘‘Firefighters said it was due to the wind direction. We are just so grateful for the work they’ve done and how quickly they managed to contain it.
‘‘It was really concerning to see it – the firefighters moved pretty quickly and we were fortunate that there were light winds last night which pushed the fire back up towards the road.
‘‘A fire was caused on the peak last year after someone threw a cigarette butt out their window and that caused quite a significant fire. This could have been caused by a cigarette, it could have been caused by fireworks – I suppose we’ll find out in due course.’’
Buttle said both cigarettes and fireworks were prohibited on Te Mata Peak because of the fire risk.
‘‘Our highest priority is the safety of our park users and this sort of behaviour is very concerning from our perspective – we’re getting into the time of year where dryness becomes an issue so we’re just asking everyone to be vigilant.’’