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A farmer's burn-off in Southland has blazed out of control and ripped through hundreds of hectares of land.
The rural fire service believes the fire, near Waimahaka on the South Coast, is now contained, although the clean-up bill could come to a nasty shock to the man who lit it.
The blaze started as a permitted and controlled burn-off four days ago.
However the fire broke out shortly after 10am Monday after spreading from the controlled burn of felled gorse and scrub and devoured 350 hectares of pine plantation and wetlands, including 80 of a DOC reserve.
Incident controller Trevor Tidey says the fire has now dies down, after picking up in winds on Monday.
"The decision was made to put the priority on the western flank and stop that fire moving further out into that DOC area," he says.
Difficult access forced the fire fight into the air, with six monsoon helicopters working the flames.
"The vegetation that we've got is probably some of the most volatile in NZ with the wetlands and scrubland associations and high component of dead material," says Mike Grant, Rural Fire Officer.
Peat is one of the main culprits. The material can burn underground for weeks, then, when it finally comes up it can destroy whole forests, and it can be expensive. The helicopters alone have already cost more than $200,000.
Landowner Murray Maxwell told the Southland Times he lit the fires in the remnants of gorse and scrub three days ago.
He says he is thanking his lucky stars that he is comprehensively insured.
For the crew on the ground, it has been a long hot couple of days but it isn't over just yet.
"As long as things go to plan... then by tomorrow night we'll be scaling down quite a bit, and look at patrolling on from tomorrow evening," says Tidey.
Fresh crews are organised for Wednesday, hopefully to deal to the fire for good.
