Two helicopters, five fire crews bring Nth Canterbury blaze under control

A blaze in the Canterbury high country was brought under control yesterday with the help of two helicopters and five fire crews.

• This story was first published by RNZ

Starting near Mount Lyford at 11.20am Tuesday, the fire burned through 500m of forestry slash.

Fire and Emergency spokesperson Andrew Norris said gale-force north-west winds made it a challenging fire to fight.

"In the initial stages the fire was burning quite rapidly up a sloping hillside and it was spotting which means the windblown ash and debris was being blown ahead of the fire and causing the fire to spread uphill very fast," he said.

The blaze was now under control, with an investigation into the cause was due to start soon.