A large vegetation fire in mixed scrub and wetland which grew to 1200 hectares yesterday at Southland’s Tiwai Peninsula is contained and has “not grown further” overnight.
The fire grew fivefold in size in hot, windy conditions on Thursday afternoon, but was contained by the end of the day, Fire and Emergency NZ said in an update this morning.
At its height, 60 firefighters, eight fire trucks and 10 helicopters were battling the blaze.
Incident controller Hamish Angus said 35 firefighters would be on site today with support from five helicopters, the Department of Conservation (DOC) and local forestry companies.
“Our focus today is on knocking out those remaining hotspots.”
He said winds were expected to pick up over the next few days and that Fire and Emergency NZ want to make sure nothing left at the site could get the fire underway again.
“It’s too early to say what caused the fire, but we will have fire investigators here today looking into that.”
The fire is burning on DOC land, and Murihuku operations manager John McCarroll said yesterday that it was a “huge blow”.
“Awarua has a significant number of biodiversity values and is used by a lot of wading birds for flocking and feeding, including the endangered Southern New Zealand Dotterel / Pukunui.
“We will assess the losses once the fire is under control and we can return there safely. We may never know the full impact on biodiversity, but it is likely significant.”
The DOC website said the Awarua-Waituna wetlands are one of the largest remaining wetland complexes in the country and that it is important for its biological diversity and cultural values.
