Farmer faces wetland fire charge

Fire authorities laid charges against a Southland farmer because they wanted to reinforce the importance of fire rules, the Department of Conservation says.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Southland in at least 12 years.

Department of Conservation Southland conservancy manager Dave Taylorsaid the decision to lay the charges was made jointly by DOC and the Southern Rural Fire Authority. They relate to a fire in December that spread and destroyed more than 250 hectares of wetland.

There was a "tremendous" amount of community interest in the wetlands and there had been heavy consultation with landowners in the area about the importance of appropriate fire precautions, he said.

"We just kind of got to the end of our tether," he said.

National Rural Fire Authority rural fire operations manager Gary Lockyer said the case was only the second of its kind to be brought before the courts in New Zealand in three years.

While he could not speak on the Southland case, fires in the wetland area were common and prosecutions were sometimes considered by fire authorities to help get the message through about the importance of being vigilant about fire rules, he said.

"Sometimes the only way to get the message through is we have to use that final little bit of compliance power we have," he said.

Southern Rural Fire Authority chairman Dave Adamson declined to comment on the case until court proceedings had concluded.

Awarua farmer Murray Gordon Maxwell, 49, has been charged with lighting fires in a restricted fire season without a permit, leaving burning and smouldering heaps of vegetation without extinguishing so as to cause a fire, and failing to comply with the Conservation Act by taking plans from a conservation area.

Maxwell, who is defending the charges, appeared at a status hearing in the Invercargill District Court on Wednesday when Judge Mary O'Dwyer said she hoped the matter could be settled by December 2.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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