Emergency services kept busy as wind wreaks havoc
STRONG winds wreaked havoc across Otago and Southland yesterday resulting in several emergency service callouts to power outages, fallen trees and lifted roofs.
In Southland, fire crews responded to 18 weatherrelated incidents within 24 hours.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said the majority of the events comprised roofs lifting, as well as fallen power lines and trees.
Winds reached 54kmh by noon and tore iron panels from the Southland District Council building in Invercargill.
Fenz Station Officer Toby Pascoe said there were fears they could be blown on to the main street.
‘‘What we’re concerned about here is the roofing coming off and going on to Dee St, and also [concerned about] the occupants.’’
Two Fire and Emergency crews along with police assistance arrived at the scene on Forth St about 11.30am.
‘‘We’re going to try and secure that loose iron either using our ladder truck or our internal crews and tie that down.’’
Roof tiles on Invercargill’s St Mary’s Basilica also went flying, causing fire crews to scale the tall building, he said.
Further up the road in Central Otago, a Naseby resident woke yesterday to find a large neighbouring elm tree had fallen in the wind, smashing a section of fence.
The resident, who declined to be named, said it had “sounded like a thunderclap.” She said the wind was “horrendous”.
In Wanaka, a tree knocked out a power line in Lake Hawea-Albert Town Rd (State Highway 6) causing widespread power cuts for several hours.
A police spokesman said at 12.19pm a tree had fallen on to power lines. The power line had ‘‘not been fully knocked over, but it’s down’’.
The Aurora Energy website noted an unplanned outage expected to last until 5.30pm.
Several fire crews from across Southland spent more than three hours attempting to control a potentially explosive rubbish truck fire yesterday.
A Fire and Emergency spokesman said firefighters were alerted to the incident about 1.45pm in Mataura.
Two crews from Gore, two from Mataura, and three from Invercargill helped put out the blaze.
The truck was believed to be carrying hazardous substances, he said.
‘‘We had a specialist crew sent out to the scene, there were 20litre barrels of chemicals on board the rubbish truck.’’
Firefighters left the scene just before 5pm after eliminating any risks.
Investigations were still ongoing as to where the chemicals came from. No injuries were reported.