The Northern Southland scrub fire that threatened two cell towers over Labour Weekend is out, and it burned considerably more land than first thought.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand said an aerial inspection on Tuesday afternoon found no smoke anywhere on the Centre Hill fireground, near Mossburn, and no ground operations would be needed. Crews from Southland volunteer brigades and the Department of Conservation had been lined up to walk the ground on Tuesday morning, but low cloud kept the helicopter down until the afternoon, and once it flew the all-clear meant they were not required.

The revised assessment puts the area affected at 130 hectares of high-country grazing land and public conservation land. Over the weekend the fire had been estimated at about 80 hectares, mostly tussock grazing with an area of native bush on adjoining conservation land.

Towers saved

Emergency services were alerted to the blaze about 4pm on Sunday. With the terrain too difficult for ground crews to reach on foot, six helicopters with monsoon buckets concentrated on protecting two telecommunications towers on top of the hill.

Checks on Tuesday confirmed that effort had worked and the towers were undamaged. Incident controller Hamish Angus had earlier praised the pilots, saying they did "an excellent job in very challenging conditions".

Monday brought a different problem. A MetService orange wind warning for Southland, with gales forecast to reach 130km/h in exposed places, grounded the helicopters and kept firefighters off the hill entirely. Rain arrived late on Monday and was expected to damp down the open country, although Mr Angus warned that deep-seated fire in mature beech forest would still need to be checked and any hot spots dug out.

No livestock were reported affected. The cause of the fire is under investigation, and Fire and Emergency says it will not comment on the findings until the investigator's report is complete.

Power lines spark second fire

The same winds caused a second fire near Gore on Monday afternoon. Power lines came down in rural Waimumu, off Waimumu Road south-west of the town, igniting grass and a hedge.

Fire and Emergency spokesman Alex Norris said about 20 metres of hedge was alight when crews from Gore, Hedgehope and Mataura arrived. Firefighters had to wait for the power to be isolated before they could put the fire out, and properties in the area lost power while the lines were made safe.

With gusts of up to 120km/h forecast for the Gore area that day, Mr Norris urged people not to light controlled burns while the wind was up. The origin and cause of that fire will also be investigated.

Both fires came in a week of blazes across the South. In Central Otago, a fire in pine trees at Roxburgh East forced six households from their homes on Monday before overnight rain helped crews bring it under control. No properties were damaged.