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Smoke From Hay Fire Closes Road

Posted on: Sunday, 26 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By KEAST, John

State Highway 1 south of Temuka in South Canterbury was closed for several hours last night as smoke from flaming hay billowed across the road.

More than 500 big square bales of hay were ruined in the fire, which was noticed just before 3pm.

Land owner Brian Stratford and a worker tried to stem the blaze but it got beyond them.

Wife Lynn Stratford said she stopped traffic on the highway until police arrived to prevent accidents.

Fire crews from Temuka, Pleasant Point and Timaru fought the fire, which at one point jumped the highway, threatening sheep.

But Temuka fire chief Richard Webb said firefighters, working against a stiff north-easter which was taking smoke and flames across the road, stopped the fire spreading into the paddock opposite.

It is not known what caused the fire. The hay was stacked alongside the road inside a line of trees.

Stratford said her husband and a farmworker tried to pull the burning bales out of a long stack of month- old hay, but the flames got too much.

Two diggers were used to pull the smouldering and flaming hay out of a long stack, and then spread it so firefighters could douse it.

Fire crews prevented the fire spreading to an adjoining stack but 500 bales were lost.

Lynn Stratford said the hay would be a big loss but not disastrous.

She said they had other hay reserves.

Cars on the highway were diverted west of the highway to avoid the smoke, which made the road impassable.

Webb said crews were being stood down late yesterday but expected some units to work into the night.

The fire also destroyed poplars at the paddocks edge.

* Hurunui firefighters are hoping to get some well-earned rest over the weekend after mopping up hot spots at the site of a 75ha fire in the Lewis Pass that burnt through tall scrub, tussock and regenerated beech forest. A thermal scan yesterday of the burnt area, about 14km west of the Hanmer Springs turn-off, and covering steep hill county near State Highway 7, revealed several hot spots around the perimeter and in the burn area.

Source: Press, The; Christchurch, New Zealand

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