News & Notices

For rural fire fighting emergencies and training the Lake Ferry Rural Fire Force fills their appliance from local streams and water supplies.  In summer months these dry up.  With firefighters returning from calls at all hours of the day and night, the struggle to locate a suitable water supply and the time this takes is frustrating for the crew.

Thanks to support from the Fonterra Grass Roots Fund, a 25,000 litre water tank has been fitted to the Fire Depot at Lake Ferry.  This water tank now provides access to a reliable water source for firefighting in the area and for volunteer training.

Dave Sinton, Fonterra Area Manager, presented the cheque to Phill Wishnowsky, Wairarapa Rural Fire District PRFO at an “opening the valve” ceremony on Sunday.

They were joined by WRFD board members and members of the Lake Ferry Voluntary Rural Fire Force.

Fire crews were confronted with 2m flames as helicopters arrived with monsoon buckets to contain a 7-hectare blaze on a rural property in Carterton yesterday.

Deputy principal rural fire officer Grant Davies said a Wilton Rd property lessee had been cutting hay when the mower blade hit a stone, sparking a fire around 1.30pm.

Mr Davies said six fire crews from Carterton, Masterton and Greytown attended, backed up by forestry crews, adding up to "30-plus" people on the ground in 31C heat for about an hour.

With the Amalgamated Helicopters "living just across the road", two helicopters were quickly on the scene with monsoon buckets.

"What we've got here was a fast-moving grass fire that's burnt about 18 acres, according to the owner," he said,

"There was a good wind behind it and it's managed to jump Wiltons Rd and into the next paddock but thankfully that's been chewed out."

"When I arrived it was out at the far end of the paddock and within 30 seconds to a minute it had jumped the road.

"It moves quick -- it spread a good 200m in the matter of a minute. We had flame heights over 2m, and it was fair going for it."

Forty-eight Watson & Son beehives were in the paddock at the time of the blaze but none were damaged. The hives were moved last night.

Mr Davies said he couldn't stress enough to the public to be aware of potential fire risks in the dry season.

"We have put the message out there already -- you shouldn't be topping paddocks and things in the heat of the day," he said.

"The whole Wairarapa rural district went into a complete fire ban three days ago because things are really dry and there's no significant rain forecast until April so we've got a month of this ahead of us."

Fire Service assistant area commander Matthew Abel came in from Upper Hutt to assess the fire.

"If you absolutely need to do baling or hay cutting, early in the morning is the way to go -- you can see the devastating results here," he said.

"Eighteen acres of burnt land is unproductive for quite some time.

"Fortunately it didn't spread too far.

"With the grass the way it is -- so dry, it doesn't take much to set fire and spread."

The lessee and property owner declined to comment.

- Wairarapa Times-Age

By Emily Norman emily.norman@age.co.nz

Onoke Alive, A whanau day at Lake Ferry on December 12 saw Father Christmas arrive on the lake Ferry Rural Fire Appliance.

Another busy week for WRFD, Tuesday 20 October saw a call to a forest fire on the Bideford Road where an excavator had a problem and set fire to the surrounding pine plantation.

The plantation was on a very steep slope with a thick layer of fuel on the ground from thinning and gorse. Which resulted in a fast spreading fire with crowning in the centre strip

The fire was attended by three crews from NZFS, Mauriceville VRFF, the Carterton tanker, Wichman Silver culture crews, 2 helicopters from Amalgamated helicopters and 1 from Wairarapa Helicopters.

While the main fire was contained late on Tuesday evening, ground crews from DoC and Wairarapa Silver Culture were at work all day Wednesday working on hot spots and digging out stumps with the fire being handed back to the owner on Thursday midday