Rain and a change in the weather have given Fire and Emergency New Zealand a chance to get on top of a vegetation fire that has burned about 80 hectares of high country at Centre Hill in northern Southland since Sunday afternoon.
The fire broke out on Mount Hamilton, west of Mossburn on the road to Te Anau, with Fire and Emergency first alerted shortly before 4pm on Sunday 25 October.
Within hours six helicopters were dropping water from monsoon buckets, with a seventh aircraft coordinating the attack. Their job was not to put the fire out but to protect two telecommunications towers on the hill.
No firefighters were sent in on the ground because the terrain was too difficult to reach on foot. Crews in the Centre Hill area monitored the blaze from a distance.
"There is no risk to the public at the moment," a Fire and Emergency spokesperson said on Sunday, adding that the key focus was protecting the towers.
The fire was moving through short grass rather than scrub and was not spreading quickly, but strong winds made it hard to contain. Flames were expected to be visible on Sunday night from parts of northern Southland, particularly around Mossburn.
Gales ground the helicopters
Crews were stood down overnight and planned to reassess at first light, but MetService's orange strong wind warning for Southland on Monday, with gales of up to 130km/h forecast in exposed places, kept the helicopters out of the air.
Incident controller Hamish Angus said on Monday afternoon that steady rain was falling in the area alongside very strong winds. The rain would help suppress what remained of the fire in open country, he said, but deep-seated burning in mature beech forest would have to be checked and any pockets of fire dug out and extinguished.
The area affected is estimated at about 80 hectares, mostly high country grazing land along with an area of native bush on adjoining public conservation land. There have been no reports of livestock being hurt.
Angus praised the helicopter pilots, who he said "did an excellent job in very challenging conditions" defending the towers.
Crews from Southland volunteer brigades and the Department of Conservation, experienced in arduous conditions, were being organised to go in on Tuesday morning once the weather allowed a proper assessment. An investigation into the origin and cause of the fire will follow.
Second fire near Gore
The same winds caused a second, smaller fire on Monday afternoon at Waimumu, south-west of Gore, where power lines brought down by the gusts set grass and a hedge alight. Fire crews attended.
Centre Hill is a rural locality on State Highway 94 between Mossburn and Te Anau, in high country grazing land backed by beech forest, and the two communications towers on Mount Hamilton were the focus of the firefighting effort throughout Sunday.
