{"id":576852,"date":"2026-08-22T11:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576852\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:54:14","slug":"strong-winds-hampering-firefighters-at-large-wanaka-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/576852\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong winds hampering firefighters at large W\u0101naka blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large fire that forced evacuations in W\u0101naka has been brought under control, but strong winds and steep terrain are making it difficult for firefighters to reach the remaining flames.<\/p>\n

About 22 homes were evacuated in W\u0101naka’s Albert Town on Saturday night, as the huge flames burned close to residential streets.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said they were alerted to the vegetation fire in an area made up of gullies and steep hills, just before 7:30pm on Saturday, and had been attacking it from “multiple points”.<\/p>\n

In a briefing after 10pm on Saturday, Fire and Emergency District Assistant Commander Nic McQuillan said the fire was in about one kilometre of trees and scrub “alongside houses”.<\/p>\n

While it was now controlled, “firefighters are still dealing with hotspots, flare-ups and ember transfers,” and firefighters would be at the scene working on it all night into Sunday, he said.<\/p>\n

“No houses have caught fire, although initially it was thought seven to eight properties were threatened and Police evacuated 22 homes.”<\/p>\n

It was not known what caused the fire, or when people who were evacuated would be able to return home, he said. But a reporter at the scene said there were signs some people may have been allowed home shortly after that briefing.<\/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, Tarras and Cromwell, had responded to the blaze, along with three support vehicles.<\/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 and the Clutha River.<\/p>\n

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

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 they quickly put on warm gloves and beanies before going out into the cold night, and he was able to move two cars away from the fire area.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

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

Michael Frankton, who uses a wheelchair, said it was a terrifying sight: “I looked out the window and I could see a raging fire heading towards our house, up the bank in the k\u0101nuka”.<\/p>\n

Sarah Dawson said neighbours acted quickly: “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

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

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

Images posted online showed huge flames rising into the night near houses.<\/p>\n

Police were at the scene carrying out evacuations and controlling traffic. A cordon on the corner of Hunt-Lagoon-Sherwin was lifted earlier in the night.<\/p>\n

Rain had been minimal this week, residents told RNZ, but by 10:30pm it was raining heavily.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

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

\"Firefighters<\/p>\n

RNZ\/ Jeremy Rees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A large fire that forced evacuations in W\u0101naka has been brought under control, but strong winds and steep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-576852","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\/576852","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=576852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}