Make sure all fires fully extinguished — Fenz
Waikato farmers are being asked to check any old smouldering rubbish and land clearance fires to ensure they are out, given extreme fire danger forecast across the district.
Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) district manager Daryl Trim says people should check the sites of old fires and make sure they are fully extinguished.
“Attendance at these wildfires is putting an unnecessary strain on our firefighting resources,” says Daryl, noting the Waikato District, including the Coromandel, is in a prohibited fire season.
“Last Friday our fire brigades were fully stretched attending a fire caused by a rubbish fire pit at Lake Kara¯ piro which required a helicopter plus Cambridge, Te Awamutu, Pirongia and Hamilton Ops Fire brigades.
“The second fire at Po¯ kuru was started by two separate old rubbish fires, which ended up burning four hectares of grass, with the responding brigades saving a house, aided by a
wind shift.”
A fire appliance responding to one of the fires this week was unable to access the property because of overhanging branches on the driveway.
Daryl reminds all property owners that a fire truck needs a minimum 4m x 4m clearance to access a driveway:“Unfortunately, if we can’t access your farm drive, our help will be delayed or limited.”