Residents evacuated as fire spreads

DEREK FLYNN

ABLAZE: A helicopter prepares to join the firefighting effort at first light as a large forest fire burns through a pine plantation near Canvastown in Marlborough.

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A forest fire forced about 40 Canvastown residents to leave their Marlborough homes.

Firefighters used five helicopters, bulldozers and water tankers to control the blaze by noon yesterday.

Almost 50 hectares of privately owned pine forest along State Highway 6, west of Canvastown, were burnt, but no homes were damaged.

About a dozen homes were evacuated as a precaution just before midnight on Tuesday.

"When you are sort of startled in the middle of the night, you have got to put your thinking cap on, wondering what to take with you" said Ted Tomlinson, 77, owner of homestay Woodchester Lodge.

Tomlinson, his wife, and two guests were woken just before midnight by a fireman banging on the front door. The Canvastown residents spent the night at Te Hora Marae, returning home at 7am yesterday.

Tomlinson said he was tired, but not too worried about spending a night away.

"It doesn't really worry me. I thought they might have been going a bit over the top, but they have got a job to do."

The fire's cause was not known.

- © Fairfax NZ News