Huge fire near Christchurch caused a stir

A massive plume of smoke over the Port Hills sent shockwaves through Christchurch yesterday afternoon.

Hundreds of messages about the fire flooded into Newstalk ZB's Christchurch newsroom - with smoke visible from across the city.

Fire and Emergency NZ said the clouds of smoke were from a controlled burn off.

FENZ said the burn off was on Charteris Bay Rd towards Diamond Harbour.

They said the bulk off the burn-off was finished yesterday afternoon.

A Diamond Harbour resident said the fire was on Loudon Farm - and they could see helicopters with monsoon buckets putting it out.