Estuary fire started in rubbish

Firefighters were called to a blaze in dry vegetation beside the Whanganui River estuary that appeared to start with a bag of dumped rubbish. Station officer Jes Sorensen said the area was dry and it was lucky the fire was moving slowly. Even so it burned a 10m x 40m area. A cellphone call at 10.53am yesterday to Wanganui's Fire Service alerted them and one fire truck was sent from a training session to the fire at the base of South Spit, near Landguard Bluff. Firefighters parked as close as possible and rolled out a 120m hose, then pumped a mixture of water and foam through it. It took most of the truck's 1300 litres of water to contain the fire, but some was kept back while the truck waited for the rural tanker to arrive with an additional 5000 litres and finish the job. More fine weather is predicted until Sunday, meaning more hot, dry conditions.