A small number of homes and luxury hotel Braemar Lodge have been evacuated near Hanmer Springs because of a large fire.<\/p>\n
Firefighters are struggling to reach the fire approximately 4.5km southeast of Hanmer Springs in North Canterbury, due to roads being blocked by downed trees.<\/p>\n
State Highway 7 is closed between Waipara and Springs Junction, as well as State Highway 7A, the turnoff to Hanmer Springs.<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency (FENZ) Assistant Commander Ken Cooper said crews are trying to clear the debris so fire trucks can get to the scene.<\/p>\n
Cooper said two helicopters have made it to the scene and one of them is battling the blaze while the other monitors.<\/p>\n
He said the fire is not contained.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nFire at Hanmer Springs.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Gavin Martin\n<\/p>\n
No properties are currently threatened by fire, FENZ said.<\/p>\n
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell told Midday Report police had already sent more staff in to the area.<\/p>\n
He didn’t have a lot of detail but said the winds were posing problems for emergency services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Sam Rutherford\n<\/p>\n
‘Horrendous’ winds pummel Hanmer<\/p>\n
Hanmer has been one of the hardest hit areas by Thursday’s weather, with severe gales forecast up to 200km\/h.<\/p>\n
Hurunui Mayor Marie Black said “horrendous” winds have caused widespread damage across the district, which includes Hanmer.<\/p>\n
A power outage is affecting more than 1600 people in the Hanmer Springs area, and residents are being asked to conserve water due to disruption at the council’s pump sheds.<\/p>\n
Black said there’s trees and powerlines down.<\/p>\n
She said the council is asking people to act cautiously, and heed the advice of emergency management officials to stay home and look after their neighbours.<\/p>\n
Mitchell said the Canterbury High Country is experiencing the worst of the winds, although the effects of this weather event is being felt “everywhere”.<\/p>\n
Canterbury High Country is under a red wind warning until 5pm on Thursday, while Christchurch and Canterbury Plains are under the warning until 4pm on Thursday. This warning means there is a threat to life.<\/p>\n
Wellington, including Wairarapa, Marlborough, Clutha and Southland are also under red wind warnings on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small number of homes and luxury hotel Braemar Lodge have been evacuated near Hanmer Springs because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-95358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95358","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=95358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}