Smoke over Puketapu

Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
The sun shines red through a smoky haze around Puketapu above Palmerston on Wednesday morning, as smoke blows in from a large fire near Dunback, about 15km away.

Firefighters were yesterday continuing to ''mop up'' the fire, which ripped through more than 100ha of scrub and forest.

Otago Rural Fire Authority deputy principal rural fire officer Graeme Still said one rural fire crew and a digger remained at the scene of the fire dealing with hot spots.

Firefighters would tomorrow use an infra-red camera to assess hot spots at the site.

The blaze threatened houses after wind whipped up a weeks-old controlled burn, but firefighters were able to stave off the flames and only a hay shed was damaged.

The blaze was simply an accident, Mr Still said.

''It's one of those things. It [the controlled burn] was a number of weeks ago ... quite a few weeks ago,'' he said.

''There's no blame there.''

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