Burn-off rages out of control

Press, 30 August 1988, Page 8

Burn-off rages out of control

PA Dunedin A routine burn-off of scrub at Walter Peak, near Queenstown, raged out of control burning thousands of hectares of tussock and scrub, some on neighbouring Cecil Peak, before being put out yesterday. The fire was originally intended to burn about 400 hectares on Walter Peak station, said the Lakes District conservator for the Conservation Department, Mr Neil Simpson, yesterday. “The fire got into the thousands of hectares — the whole of the Queenstown face of Walter Peak was burnt,” he said.

The fire was meant to

have burnt off broom and bracken, but got out of hand and destroyed large areas of high-altitude tussock and grasslands, which would take a long time to grow back, he said.

The fire also burnt a recreation reserve near Walter Peak station, although this did not have such vegetation on it.

But mature kowhais were destroyed, he said. "It is fairly unsightly at the moment; it is just a big, black face.” Staff of the department, the Queenstown Lakes District Council and local farmers were still busy dampening the flames.