UPDATED: Investigator on way to Far North fire | Northland News | Local News in Northland

A fire investigator is heading to the Far North to determine the cause of a blaze that ripped through about 20ha of forest.

Fire crews have been working on the fire in the north section of Te Kao, about 46km from Cape Reinga, which started about 5.30pm yesterday.

The fire broke out and tore through a cut-over area of production pine plantation owned by Hancock Forests, said Lance Johnston, of the Far North District Council. Cut-over describes young trees planted to replace cut forests.

Two helicopters worked into darkness to protect the nearby homes in the sparse terrain, and one was on the scene this morning dampening down the fire.

A second helicopter was on its way to join the diggers, bulldozers and crews working on the scene.

Mr Johnston said the remote area had patchy cellphone reception, so there was limited communication coming through on the firefighters' movements today.

"They will determine this morning where the ignition point was. They've got a fire investigator going up there this morning, but we believe it might have started near a house at that location and spread into a cutover area of production pine plantation, which is owned by Hancock forests.

"It's burnt about 20ha of cutover. Helicopters worked until about 10pm last night and they've got the perimeter all dampened down and they've got bulldozers in there this morning getting fire breaks in and ground crews deployed to mop it up. We're on top of it."

He said the fire was not being treated as suspicious at this stage.

"From what I understand, no I don't think there was any arson-type intent. From my understanding is, that they've been able to identify the ignition point being very close to a house, which may be from a rubbish fire or something like that. It's still fairly scratchy news."

He said no houses were burnt by the flames, and no one was evacuated.


-APNZ