By Annabelle Tukia
Seven homes in a luxurious Wanaka suburb had to be evacuated this morning as a scrub fire raged just metres away.
The blaze broke out in vegetation near Mount Iron.
A wall of flames 20 metres high threatened homes in a plush Wanaka suburb early this morning.
It started around 4am and rapidly destroyed about 600 square metres of scrub.
“Even driving in here we could see the glow in the sky and flames, so we knew it was something pretty major,” says Ian Galloway, Wanaka chief fire officer.
Gayle McCarroll says she felt helpless as she watched the flames threaten her home.
“All you could see was the house - it looked like it was engulfed in flames and I just turned to Ian and said ‘we've lost it’,” she says.
Local man Tim Pierce woke up to the smell of smoke wafting into his home.
He rushed out the door armed with his camera and captured incredible footage of the blaze.
“It was pretty frightening, for sure, there were people running round outside their houses, people evacuating their houses people crying, all sorts of crazy stuff.”
Quick actions by a number of residents and nine fire trucks brought the blaze under control and saved all of the homes from any damage.
The fires are not being treated as suspicious but arcing power lines are being investigated as a cause.
Tinder dry conditions are also suspected as a catalyst for the fire.
“Just over the last couple of weeks we’ve had some very hot dry weather and prior to that we had a lot of growth, an exceptional season for growth, so we got a lot of long grass [and] its just dried right off,” says Mr Galloway.
The dry conditions are likely to keep the Central Otago holiday hotspot on edge for a while yet.
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