Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) has warned people lighting fires in the open to be wary during strong winds after a waste vegetation fire spread to a shelter belt on an orchard in Bushmere Road on Tuesday afternoon.

FENZ sent an appliance and a water tanker to the property at around 1pm.

“People on the property had been burning some prunings when the fire jumped out in the strong wind and into a nearby shelter belt,” a senior firefighter said.

“The fire involved about 40 metres of the shelter belt.”

Fortunately an orchard worker was able to contain the fire spread with a sprayer until they got there to put it out.

“Care still needs to be taken with fires in the open because it’s still pretty dry in places.”