Fire threatened Southland pine forest

A large fire from a slash pile threatened a pine forest in Southland last night and took firefighters several hours to contain.

Firefighters were called to Castle Downs from 7pm and the last crew left about 1am today, a Fire and Emergency NZ spokeswoman said.

The fire grew to about 1.5ha but was contained and it then rained in the area, she said.

Fenz said the fire threatened a pine forest block and crews had to work for an extended period to contain the blaze.

Firefighters from Dipton, Mossburn, Lumsden, Garston, Drummond and Athol attended, the spokeswoman said.