Fire and Emergency New Zealand are urging residents to avoid non-essential fires when the Hurunui moves into an open fire season from midnight tonight.
News Type: Media Release
Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Christchurch City, Banks Peninsula, Selwyn
and North Canterbury will move to open fire season status from midnight
Saturday (2 May).
Principal Rural Fire
Officer Bruce Janes says while the fire seasons are changing, Fire and
Emergency NZ is asking people to think twice before lighting an open-air fire.
“While we know essential
industries like farmers will still need to light fires as part of their land
management, we would appreciate if people would hold off lighting non-essential
fires for a couple more weeks while we remain under COVID-19 Alert Level
3.
“Now is the time to be
more vigilant than ever to avoid an upturn in the spread of the virus.”
Bruce Janes says even if a
fire is permitted and under control, the smoke often generates a 111 call from
the public, meaning firefighters need to leave their bubble to deal with an
avoidable fire.
Across the Canterbury and
Christchurch Metro Areas were attended nearly 60 rubbish fires during the Level
4 lockdown, this compared to 20 across the same period last year.
