Whangamata fire: what caused it, two houses on evacuation alert

A power line that sparked in the high winds is the fault of a fire that blew up a road and swept at least 200m through 300m of pine forest north of Whangamata, where the occupants of two houses were awaiting evacuation this morning .

Twelve fire devices, an ambulance, police and helicopters with two rain buckets were at the scene after eyewitnesses said the fire sent flames over mature trees on the side of SH25a.

Ed Askew told Coastal News that he saw flames when he stopped on the road from Pauanui to Whangamata.

“Strong orange flames were just above that tree, when we first got here, you could basically see how they had jumped the road and the smoke was going further left into the forest.

“It was quite impressive, quite scary.”

Whangamata CFO Nigel Airey said it appeared the fire was caused by high winds and a tree that caught fire near power lines.

“He was on the roadside for about 25 m and jumped the main road into a group of mature pine trees, 200 m by 300 m minimum.

“He then jumped to a younger post that goes up to Onemana, so our best effort was to keep him from heading north.”

All traffic stopped and the road was recently reopened. But at least a dozen motorists and a school bus full of teenagers from the Whangamata area school waited for at least two hours when the fire struck just as they had picked up the Onemana and Tairua students on the way to school.

CFO Nigel Airey said Powerco was cutting vegetation at the site and had been in the area only three to four weeks ago to remove growth around power lines.

“In this point [the cause] it’s the power lines and the strong winds, “he said.” The winds really picked up this morning. “

Two appliances from Whangamata, two from Whiritoa, the unimog and support vehicle from Onemana Rural Fire, appliances from Pauanui, Tairua and near Hamilton rushed to the scene, as well as two helicopters.

The helicopters returned with buckets of rain and by 2 pm, crews were searching for embers with thermal cameras.

Nigel Airey confirmed that two houses in the woods where the fire left large areas of burned trees were awaiting evacuation, but this was not necessary. No one was injured in the fire.

Onemana Rural Fire Chief Jo Adams said the brigade had been preparing for a major fire with drought conditions raising alert levels.

“It’s been a great job. Rayonier’s manager and I had a meeting about this the other day, saying that when you get going, it will get ugly,” Jo said. “It had a lot of potential. The Ember transfer just jumped and that was it. There was a lot of dry fuel.”

Jo said crews would need to be “cleaning up” for the next several days to make sure no sparks of fire break out again.