'Team effort' beats tricky blaze

A simple hedge fire provided a logistical nightmare for firefighters.

Fighting a fire, no matter how small, on Quarantine Island makes for a situation that is ''just a little bit unique'', Portobello Station deputy Chief Fire Officer Jamie Ramsay says.

Three boats, 18 firefighters and some Kiwi ''ingenuity'' were required to put out a deliberately lit fire in a hedge near a resident's house on the island, in Otago Harbour, on Tuesday night.

''A fire like that, if it was on the side of the road, we would pull up our appliance and pull out a hose ... and, wham, we would knock it over and be done in minutes,'' Mr Ramsay said.

''The logistics of it being a couple of hundred metres away and a big lump of water between us makes it that much more difficult.''

A portable pump was used to draw water from the harbour to extinguish the fire.

Firefighters from Portobello made ''an initial attack''and personnel from Port Chalmers joined them soon after.

It was the first time Portobello and Port Chalmers personnel had combined in his 17 years as a firefighter, Mr Ramsay said.

''It was a good team effort that worked really well. I can't emphasise that enough,'' he said.

While the stations had worked together on search and rescue operations, it was ''definitely the first fire job'' on which they had worked together.

The fire was extinguished without damage to the island's two houses, but it could have been worse.

''The flames were as high as the peak of the house when I first saw it,'' Mr Ramsay said.

''We were saved as much by the wind [direction] and a bit of luck.

''A fire, given the right conditions, can double in size every 30 minutes.''

Southern District Command Centre deployment co-ordinator Senior Sergeant Brian Benn, of Dunedin, said a boy would be referred to Youth Aid over the matter.

timothy.brown@odt.co.nz

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