Horrible, dirty, hot work as crews dig in to put out week-long fire near Hamilton

'Horrible, dirty, hot work' as crews dig in to put out week-long fire near Hamilton

Volunteer Firefighters from Pirongia and Maramarua work to put out a fire near Hamilton which has been burning underground for a week.
Volunteer firefighters have put in hundreds of hours using specialist equipment to bring a stubborn underground fire under control on the outskirts of Hamilton.

The scrub fire started about a week ago along the railway line near Collins Rd, Temple View, a few kilometres from the city.

Fire and Emergency NZ was unsure what started the fire but peat soil may have helped it continue to burn underground.

Hamilton and volunteer fire crews extinguished the initial blaze but hot spots continued to spread, which is now about 400m-long by 30m-wide, straddling the railway line.

Pirongia and Maramarua volunteer firefighters were back at the scene on Monday as smoke was spotted again, confirming the fire was still burning.

It was the fifth day a fire crew had been on site in a week.

Maramarua chief fire officer Howard Cole said the heat of the underground hot spots and the wind of the past week made for a dangerous combination.

“That’s how the fire flares up again,” he told Stuff at the scene.

“Where you see smoke, we can use a thermal imaging camera to detect how hot it is underground.

“We then go in, dig around those areas and jet water into the hole, fill it up with water to put out the fire.”

There were about 12 volunteer firefighters, working in two crews, targeting hot spots on Monday.

Access to the fire was through farmland but supplying water was a challenge.

A tanker continued to refill from a nearby hydrant in Glenview.

The water was pumped from the tanker about 400m into bladders, close to where the firefighters worked.

From the bladders, the water was pumped via smaller, high-pressure hoses to each of the crews working on the hot spots.

“We’re a bit slow today but last week we had three tankers running, four pumps going and we were able to continuously put water into the ground.”

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Cole described it as “horrible, dirty, hot work” digging holes into high temperature areas.

“It’s probably something a lot of people don’t see. There’s no big flames but this is what we specialise in, we’ve got the equipment and experience to come out and do these jobs.”

Coles has been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years and said like the others, he had different plans to spend the Monday public holiday.

“I was going to work on my dairy farm today but here we are instead. We started at 5.30am to be here about 8am and will probably be here until 5.30pm, we should have it all cleared up by then.”

Waikato principal rural fire officer Matt Cook said the region had so far escaped major fires this season but a string of rubbish and scrub fires was still putting pressure on volunteers.

“We would like to remind people that unless you’re in Hamilton city, you’re covered by volunteer firefighters. They get up and do the work, then go home and go to their own jobs.”

Coromandel was in a prohibited fire season and the Waikato region was in a restricted fire season.

People can visit the website checkitsalright.nz to read up on the rules of each season.