Monsoon buckets fizzle fire

Click the image above to view slideshow

A flare up of a previous controlled burn saw Greerton fire fighters heading for the hills off Ohauiti Road yesterday afternoon.

Two to three hectares of old dried gorse that had been sprayed off a couple of years ago, flared up after a burn off earlier in the day.

A helicopter dropped about 14,000 – 15,000 litres of water onto the scrub fire at Ohauiti on Thursday.

'It's good in the morning when there's dew on the ground,” says Western Bay Moana Rural Fire Authority principal rural fire officer Barry Low.

'The usual thing, it dried out in the afternoon. Not too dry in the morning with the dew on it but once it dries out...mature dry gorse goes well.”

A helicopter with a monsoon bucket was called for as the fire was heading for a pine planation, burning over steep, rugged terrain on a property off Adrine Lane.

Two tanker loads of water mixed with fire retardant was dropped on the fire – about 14,000-15,000 litres.

'We used additives on that, more or less to create a barrier between what was burning and the pine plantation,” says Barry.

'We had the helicopter working for an hour, an hour and a half. I was not at all happy about putting men into it, not that sort of stuff with darkness approaching,” says Barry.

Firefighters were at the scene until about 6pm.

You may also like....

1 comment

Who pays?

Posted on 25-07-2014 19:16 | By Murray.Guy

Barry Low, who pays?


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.