Photo by Karen Hibbs.
A helicopter douses a blaze which destroyed 3ha to 4ha of
vegetation around the railway line about 2km south of Kingston
yesterday.
Kingston Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Tony
Wilson said the cause was probably a spark from the Kingston
Flyer.
The blaze started about 11.30am and took until 7pm to
extinguish. Portable pumps had to be set up because the three
appliances that attended could not access the area.
The area was partly Department of Conservation (Doc) land,
and partly pastoral lease land. Doc also attended the blaze.
The train underwent mitigation work yesterday to prevent more
sparks escaping, and it could run as normal today, Mr Wilson
said.
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