Additional firefighters have been brought in to continue the work of extinguishing a vegetation fire near Burnham today.
The fire broke out alongside State Highway 1 yesterday afternoon, closing the road for a short period of time.
Crews worked to battle flare-ups overnight — including “candling”, when whole trees were on fire.
Incident Commander Dave Berry said rural crews today were systematically digging out deep-seated hotspots where the roots of gorse plants and other vegetation burning underground can reignite surface fires.
“Career firefighters have also been at the scene today, extinguishing hotspots within farm sheds and associated structures.
“There has been no rain on the fireground today and temperatures have been hot, but so far conditions have been relatively calm.”
Firefighters would remain on the fireground overnight and fresh crews would be back tomorrow, Berry said.
Fire and Emergency also continues to monitor the site of a second roadside fire a few kilometres to the south near Dunsandel which was associated with the main fire.
“Firefighters were dealing with hotspots there this morning,” a FENZ spokesperson said.
The entire Canterbury region, which consists of the fire districts Canterbury and Mid-South Canterbury, moved to a restricted fire season on Tuesday.
This means a permit is required to light any outdoor fire.
A Selwyn resident is counting the cost of the large grass fire that ripped across his land on Thursday. (Source: 1News)
Fire and Emergency advised people planning activities which could cause a spark to take some “simple precautions” to reduce risk.
“That includes planning activities for early in the day when conditions are generally cooler and calmer, staying away from long grass, and having water at hand to extinguish any sparks.”
At about 8.10pm yesterday, the fire was estimated to have burned through 30 hectares.
