By Tony Reid
Firefighters were kept on their toes all day, dampening down hot spots, and dealing with pockets of flames bursting into life in the shrub fire in Northland.
The fire has left residents fleeing for their lives.
“We’ve lost about 128 hectares. it was a pretty fierce fire. We've had some very very strong winds, the smoke was lying down quite strongly and it made it a very difficult fire to attack,” says Principle Rural Fire Officer Myles Taylor.
The fire is being treated as suspicious and has burnt three houses to the ground so far.
“It did start from a lighter or something, it didn't just come out of nowhere. Someone would have had to put a flame to it,” says resident Selwyn Murphy.
Police won't say yet if they believe this is the work of a serial arsonist, but it is starting to look that way and catching whoever is lighting the fires is fast becoming the number one issue in the area.
“It's rather distressing, and we're unsure we're going to deal with it but we're determined to get on top of it,” says Miles Taylor.
“I don't care who it is I want them put away. We are so lucky that nobody of our whanau has been killed but look what's happened - you have lost two people, you have lost human beings,” says Te Whanau Moana spokesperson Margaret Mutu.
3 News