Crews battle remote fire; falling trees cause power cuts
FIRE crews battled a remote fire fanned by high winds on the outskirts of Mosgiel yesterday, as falling trees caused power outages across Otago.
Outram Volunteer Fire Brigade Station Officer Peter Watkins said crews were called to the fire in Wehenga Rd, Hindon, about 8am.
The fire started in a slash heap that was burned a couple of weeks ago and was whipped up by the wind and spread to an area of about 300sq m, which included a pine plantation.
‘‘We were very lucky it never became aerial. It becomes a nightmare then,’’ SO Watkins said.
Fighting the fire was a bit of a logistical challenge due to the remote farmland where it occurred.
It was fortunate there was a digger on site to open the slash heap and water was drawn from a pond to be taken to the area where the fire was being fought.
About six appliances attended from the Waihola, Waikari and St Kilda stations.
The blaze was extinguished by about 3pm, SO Watkins said.
MetService issued a strong wind watch for all of Otago except Clutha, lasting from 8am to 11am yesterday.
Northwest winds might approach severe gale in exposed places, the notice said.
An Aurora Energy spokeswoman said strong winds caused two power outages due to trees falling on the lines in the Glenorchy and Cromwell areas overnight and early morning.
Fault crews worked to remove the trees and power was restored later in the day.
There was also an unplanned outage in parts of Mosgiel and Wingatui in the morning, which was caused by a damaged insulator.
People were reminded to stay well clear of fallen power lines or damaged electrical equipment and treat them as live at all times.
Any downed power lines, or trees in power lines, should be reported to Aurora, the spokeswoman said.
Middlemarch resident Sheila Ramsay said high winds had affected the settlement.
A large electronic road sign had blown over and landed in a nearby paddock.
Carriages from the Taieri Gorge railway had parts of their roof blow off and a recycling bin with a concrete base appeared to have blown over, she said.