{"id":576800,"date":"2026-08-22T10:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576800\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T10:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T10:40:13","slug":"live-firefighters-responding-to-large-wanaka-fire-evacuations-carried-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576800\/","title":{"rendered":"Live: Firefighters responding to large Wanaka fire, evacuations carried out"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 22 houses have been evacuated in W\u0101naka, where strong winds are hampering firefighters working on a large fire.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said they were alerted to a vegetation fire in the suburb of Albert Town at 7:28pm on Saturday, and were attacking it from “multiple points”.<\/p>\n

In a briefing to RNZ, Fire and Emergency District Assistant Commander Nic McQuillan said firefighters were trying to dampen down the fire, which was being driven by strong North westerly winds.<\/p>\n

It was in a difficult place to access, in an area about 750m long, which was made up of gullies and steep hills, with trees and scrub, surrounded by residential houses.<\/p>\n

“We can contain the fire, but we are having to reposition to reach each spot … But we are dealing with it,” McQuillan said.<\/p>\n

It was not known what caused the fire, or when people who were evacuated would be able to return to houses.<\/p>\n

Do you know more? Email iwitness@rnz.co.nz with information or images<\/p>\n

Fire crews from right across central Otago, including Hawea, Tarass and Cromwell, had responded to the blaze<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency Queenstown Lakes group manager Nic McQuillan, on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

Fire trucks could be seen in various streets around the Lagoon Avenue area, just minutes from central W\u0101naka. An area of vegetation on a hill was being sprayed and drenched with water just before 9pm.<\/p>\n

At the scene Del Tubb said the fire had come right up against his woodshed, near the back of his property:<\/p>\n

“We were watching telly and there was a huge roar, which I thought was wind and thought – my God that’s strong. Then [his companion] looked out the window – and it was like a blazing inferno.”<\/p>\n

“It was right across the garden – everything was bright red and it was embers. It was pretty scary stuff at that time, and you don’t know what to do, you think ‘shall I get out, shall I get my stuff out, move the cars’ – all those things. It’s really serious, you know.”<\/p>\n

Tubb said he quickly put on warm gloves and beanies, and was able to move two cars away from the fire area.<\/p>\n

Michael Frankton, who uses a wheelchair, said it was a terrifying sight.<\/p>\n

“I looked out the window and I could see a raging fire heading towards our house, up the bank in the kanuka,” he said.<\/p>\n

Sarah Dawson said neighbours acted quickly.<\/p>\n

“It just went up like these enormous, raging, high flames, just roaring towards us. It was absolutely terrifying,” she said.<\/p>\n

“All the neighbours rushed out and people were knocking on each other’s doors and checking. People looked after Michael and gave him blankets.”<\/p>\n

Images posted online showed flames rising above a residential street.<\/p>\n

Police are at the scene carrying out evacuations and controlling traffic. A cordon on the corner of Hunt-Lagoon-Sherwin had been lifted.<\/p>\n

FENZ’s McQuillan said firefighters would be on scene all night into Sunday to dampen any outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Saturday was a relatively warm day for winter, with steady and increasing north west winds, and rain had been minimal – if any – this week, the residents said.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Katie Todd<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

Supplied\/ Bernie Hewson<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Jeremy Rees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 22 houses have been evacuated in W\u0101naka, where strong winds are hampering firefighters working on a large…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-576800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}