It was a particularly busy Friday for Southern firefighters, who had to deal with a workshop completely engulfed in flames in Goodwood, near Palmerston, a burn pile that spread to somebody's car and set it alight in Gore, a barn in Southland razed to the ground by flames, a large and out-of-control vegetation fire in Arrow Junction.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said ‘‘they did a bit of work last night’’.
In the latest incident, a Middlemarch family had to evacuate their home after a fire broke out at 1am today.
The spokesman said five crews went to the scene, two from Middlemarch, two from Mosgiel and one from Naseby.
When they arrived, they found the house completely engulfed in flames.
Crews were at the scene for many hours and by 4.30am had fully extinguished the blaze.
No one was injured, the spokesman said, and an investigator would be at the scene to determine the cause of the blaze.
About 5.30pm yesterday, a very large contingent of 11 crews from the Hedgehope, Mataura, Wyndham, Gore and Riversdale stations were called to an out-of-control burn pile threatening a nearby home in the Waimumu area in Southland.
When crews arrived, the burn pile had caught on a hedge even closer to the house, the spokesman said.
‘‘Crews worked to control the fire and extinguish it ... the fire did unfortunately catch on to a car, which was well involved.
‘‘But we did manage to avoid damage to the house.’’
Crews were on site until 9pm dampening down and fully extinguishing the blaze.
Shortly before 4pm yesterday, three crews from the Browns, Winton and Hedgehope stations attended a barn fire in Browns, Southland.
When they arrived, they found a shed that was fully alight.
The fire on the barn was ‘‘pretty quick’’ to extinguish, however, inside was a pile of woodchips that had also caught fire, the spokesman said.
‘‘That took a little bit of time to dampen down - we actually used a digger and a loader to pull the wood chip apart.’’
Firefighters left the scene about 8pm.
Just after 6.30pm yesterday in Goodwood, just outside of Palmerston, three crews from Waikouaiti and three from Palmerston were called to a workshop shed that was well-alight.
Firefighters managed to fully extinguish the blaze in one hour, and crews left the scene not too long after that.
In Arrow Junction, helicopters carrying monsoon buckets and aided by scores of firefighters were busy for much of yesterday afternoon tackling a large and out-of-control vegetation fire.
The spokesman said they were alerted about 1.20pm and on arrival found a 250m x 100m fire.
Three crews from Arrowtown, one from Queenstown, one from Frankton, two from Kingston and two helicopters attended.
By 4pm, the fire was under control and crews were dampening down.
None of the fires were flagged as suspicious, he said.
