‘Llamas 30, 40 m high’: Mass fire near Ahipara in the far north

Tonight, a huge forest fire burning near Ahipara, in the Far North district, is causing flames up to 40 meters high.

The fire is said to be making its way through brush in the Gumfields Historic Reserve, to the southwest of the township.

Residents along Foreshore Rd, west of Ahipara, near Shipwreck Bay, are ordered to leave their homes.

Justin Edgecombe, a witness, says strong winds are fueling the fire.

“It’s a huge bush fire coming up the hill from behind [Ahipara]”he told the Herald.

“Where I was looking at it, it was very far away, but the flames seemed to be probably 30 or 40 meters in the air.”

Dave Clark has a section on Wharo Way, off of Foreshore Rd, and says firefighters make sure everyone leaves the area.

The fire burned towards the top of the hill behind them, but seems to be spreading towards the coast.

Clark says the fire is massive and is burning mostly through native bushes and that he has never seen anything like it before.

There hasn’t been much rain in the area lately and conditions are pretty dry, Clark said. Firefighters have told you to find another place to sleep tonight.

Four helicopters and several fire crews were working to extinguish the blaze, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said.

Clark says they are collecting water from the ocean and throwing it into the fire.

He said it was a “great vegetation” fire.

A man filming the fire from the beach said all roads were closed.

“We can’t get on the road, they are stopping all passing traffic.”

Edgecombe says police have arrived at the scene and are preventing people from driving to the fire.

A police spokeswoman says they were called around 6:10 p.m. but they were only there to control traffic in the area.