Fire crews were called to a vegetation fire in rural Waimumu southwest of Gore on Monday afternoon after power lines fell\u00a0in strong winds, setting grass and a hedge alight.<\/p>\n
Crews from Gore, Hedgehope and Mataura attended the incident, off Waimumu Rd.<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman Alex Norris\u00a0said the flames spread to a nearby hedge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got about 20 metres worth of hedge currently on fire,\u201d he\u00a0 said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to work to extinguish this one, hopefully shortly, and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Norris said crews waited for the power to be isolated to the area before they started\u00a0extinguishing the blaze.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are advising people that if they\u2019re looking to do any controlled burns or anything like that,\u00a0don\u2019t do it today, because the winds are coming up,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Gore region was under a orange wind warning\u00a0until this evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gusts were forecast\u00a0to reach 120kmh in exposed places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Currently, there were\u00a0power outages in Waimumu,\u00a0estimated to be restored by 5pm.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, rain is helping crews battling a separate vegetation fire at Centre Hill in Northern Southland.<\/p>\n
Six helicopters were working with monsoon buckets to protect two communications towers in the area after emergency services were alerted to the blaze at about 4pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fenz Incident Controller Hamish Angus said it was raining steadily in the area on Monday, with very strong winds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the rain will help in suppressing any remaining fire in the open country, deep-seated areas of burning in mature beech forest will need to be checked and any pockets of fire dug out and extinguished.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the fire was estimated to have affected an area of 80 hectares, mostly high country grazing and an area of native bush on adjoining public conservation land.<\/p>\n
He said there were no reports of livestock having been affected by the fire.<\/p>\n
Angus said the chopper crews did an \u201cexcellent job in very challenging conditions\u201d\u00a0to protect the two towers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crews from Southland volunteer brigades and the Department of Conservation were being arranged to make an assessment on Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Angus said an investigation into the origin and cause of the fire would be carried out.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u2014\u00a0additional reporting\u00a0ODT Online<\/p>\n
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