Open fire season for Taupo District

30 April 2015

The Taupo District is now in an open fire season after an extended period of wet weather.

The change in fire season means a permit is no longer needed for open fires in rural areas.

The restricted fire season began in October and was upgraded to a total fire ban after dry, hot weather increased the risk of fires becoming out of control.

Council's rural fire manager Roger Nelson said there had been enough rain to revert back to an open season. Rural areas are now a lot less susceptible to fire, he says. We still encourage people to take care when lighting and monitoring fires and act responsibly.

Mr Nelson said it had been a relatively quiet fire season for rural fire volunteers, with 14 call outs over the 2014/15 summer. Some of those were false alarms with vigilant residents reporting suspicious smoke, which is great to see, he said. We are grateful for those who used common sense and didn't light fires when it was tinder dry in our district. It has kept our properties and our community safe.

Volunteer firefighters dedicated 235 hours of service to extinguishing fires and attending call outs this season.

In the height of the dry season, a large fire destroyed about three hectares of scrub and slash in a steep gully just north of Taupo Airport. At its peak, it demanded up to 25 volunteers on site and necessitated two overnight stays on the site as the fire took three days to fully extinguish.

END

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Lisa Nairne Communications Manager 07 376 0762 027 839 8410

Vicki Waterhouse Communications Advisor 07 376 0718 027 484 2549

Taupo District Council

www.taupo.govt.nz