Scrub fire blazes in Marlborough

SCOTT HAMMOND/Marlborough Express SCOTT HAMMOND/Marlborough Express SCOTT HAMMOND/Marlborough Express

The massive scrub fire burns north of Blenheim.

Rarangi fire brigade on site at the massice scrub fire north of Blenheim.

A Rarangi firefighter surveys the bense bush with pine tree's are burning in the very steep hillside outside Blenheim.

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Marlborough scrub fire

View Marlborough scrub fire in a larger map

SCOTT HAMMOND/The Marlborough Express

HILLSIDE BLAZE: A Marlborough fire, which started just after 1.30pm on a steep and isolated hillside between Whites Bay and Robin Hood Bay has burned about three hectares of Conservation Department land.

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Firefighters are treating a scrub fire near a coastal road north of Blenheim as suspicious.

The fire, which started just after 1.30pm on a steep and isolated hillside between Whites Bay and Robin Hood Bay has burned about three hectares of Conservation Department land. Firefighters had contained the blaze by 4.30pm.

The Rarangi and Blenheim Volunteer Fire Brigades were at the scene but could not reach the fire, which was on a steep hill below Port Underwood Rd. Two choppers from Marlborough Helicopters scooped sea water with monsoon buckets to battle the flames.

Pine trees, macrocarpa, gorse and dried vegetation on the coastal rocks below burned.

Rarangi chief fire officer Ian Duncan said the fire had two starting points, which indicated they may have been started deliberately. Though not accessible by land, the area is popular with divers and boaties.

Both fires began in a gully on the coastline and spread up the ridgeline. No property was threatened.

Mr Duncan said the fire was moving fast when firefighters arrived because of the light scrub, but slowed when it hit trees.

Nearby residents and holidaymakers looked on as flames leaped about 10 metres high and a smoke plume about 1km could be seen from Blenheim.

Friends Craig Kirk and Shane Reeves of nearby Rarangi said they saw the smoke and drove over the hill to have a look.

''It's pretty impressive,'' Mr Kirk said.

A New Zealand Fire Service southern communications centre spokesman said four people called the fire brigade.

- The Marlborough Express