A Canterbury man says the loss of his late father's beloved vintage car collection in a blaze is tragic, but is relieved no one has been hurt.
Fire and Emergency NZ crews have contained the large vegetation fire in the Selwyn district.
They were alerted to the 38ha fire in Headworks Rd at Southbridge, near the Rakaia River, about 3pm yesterday fanned by high winds.
It was one of eight blazes crews had to deal with across the district, including another large one in Springfield.
Fire and Emergency believe the Southbridge fire was likely started by forestry burn piles.
The fire tore through two large sheds on Ben Lappage's family property. They contained vintage cars, car parts and a tractor, as well as a lifetime of memories.
His father, Nick Lappage, was a car aficionado from a young age.
Most of the cars destroyed were Mark II Ford Cortinas dating from the late 1960s, as well as a 1962 Massey Ferguson tractor, in various states of disrepair, Lappage said.
The sheds contained 10 to 15 cars and the tractor, but about 50 cars worth of parts.
"My old man spent 30 years buying wrecked cars and parting them out and kept the best stuff to use for his own cars.
"That's an irreplaceable collection gone now because you'll never get the stuff he had in there ever again, it's just not available."
"As far as I've been told with that wind yesterday, once the fire took hold, it was minutes. Once those sheds caught fire, it was game over."
He was relieved no-one was hurt.
"We had contractors harvesting the trees on site at the time. They weren't hurt, their gear wasn't damaged. As tragic as it is, you can always get more stuff, but the fact that no one was hurt was a real positive," he said.
One of his father's first cars, purchased when he was about 19 years old, was among those that went up in flames.
Lappage said his parents had always planned to retire to the Southbridge property, but both died before they could make their dream come true.
He and his two brothers took over the running of the farm following their father's death, almost to the day of the fire, 13 years ago. Their mother died a decade later, on the same day.
Fire contained, request not to light more
Fire and Emergency Assistant Commander Kevin McCombe said late this morning the Southbridge fire was deep-seated in mostly pine forestry slash.
Thirty firefighters, 10 trucks and heavy machinery crews worked hard to turn over logs to put out the fire, he said.
In an update this afternoon, Incident Controller Lou Ander said most crews have been stood down with some heavy machinery work continuing to turn over remaining hot spots.
‘All roads are now open again, and I expect to be able to hand back the fireground to the landowner this afternoon,’ he said.
‘There’ll be some smoke visible from the fireground as remaining hot spots are extinguished over the next few days. This is expected."
Investigators would visit the scene today to determine the cause and origin of the fire
Meanwhile, McCombe urged people to avoid lighting any fires in Canterbury today.
"High winds are forecast again, and we also urge people to check any existing burn piles to make sure they are fully extinguished.
"Windy weather is the perfect condition for old fires to reignite and escape.
"If you’ve been burning vegetation any time in the last few months or so, check the fire is completely extinguished. If there’s hot ash, and it’s safe to do so, dig into it, spread it out and pour water over it.’
Geraldine homes without power
Eighty homes near Geraldine in South Canterbury were without power overnight on Wednesday.
Severe gales caused electricity outages for hundreds of homes in the afternoon.
An Alpine Energy spokesperson told RNZ yesterday crews worked hard in difficult weather and hoped to finish restoring power today.
- additional reporting Allied Media 
