forest fire

From his vantage point from the temporary control centre at Taieri Banks Station, Dunedin City Council principal rural fire officer Graeme Still does not like the view unfolding beneath him.

Firefighters say strong winds are hampering their efforts to contain a forest fire north west of Dunedin and it may continue burning through to the weekend.

The shroud of smoke which drifted over Dunedin and Mosgiel from the Mount Allan forest fire yesterday prompted health warnings.

Our request for photographs of the Mount Allan forest fire has had a great response.

A blaze near Mosgiel has now consumed 700ha of forest, and two more houses have been evacuated.

Otago Daily Times photographer Gerard O'Brien took to the air above the fire-ravaged Taieri Plain and watched helicopters filling their monsoon buckets, then "flying in convoys'' into the billowing smoke.