Rotorua firefighters spent more than five hours putting out a scrub fire, which could have been started by a cigarette butt.
Rotorua Fire Service senior station officer Joe Pope said crews were called out to Ngakuru about 1.30am this morning.
Crews spent about five and a half hours battling a scrub fire in a roadside verge. The fire was about 400 metres by 50 metres in size.
No houses were threatened by the blaze.
Two water pumps and a water tanker were needed to put out the blaze.
Mr Pope said the fire could have been started by one of two things, either a cigarette butt being thrown out a car window or an electric fence.
The incident served as a reminder to people to take extreme care in the dry conditions because fires were more easily sparked.
Despite the light rain in Rotorua today, Mr Pope said the city would need about a week of constant rain for the fire risk to reduce.
- The Daily Post
