November 17, 2008

Three children have admitted lighting a fire that engulfed almost two hectares of scrub and threatened 10 houses and a school on the Kapiti Coast yesterday.
The fire was one of more than 100 scrub fires around the country during the weekend, marking a late start to the fire season the national Rural Fire Authority said.
The Fire Service was called to the Kapiti blaze, behind Raumati South School at 2.50pm, central fire communications shift manager Tim Rees said.
Several properties were threatened and residents evacuated.
Paraparaumu deputy chief fire officer Tim Morgan said the fire was under control within an hour.
He said none of the 10 houses threatened on Leinster Ave were damaged and all the residents had been allowed to return..
More than 60 firefighters and 12 appliances attended the blaze.
Detective Sergeant Ian Martin, of Kapiti, said three local boys, aged between 12 and 13 years, had admitted lighting the fire behind the school, and they had been referred to Youth Aid.
'There's no suggestion they were trying to set fire to the school,' he told the Dominion Post.
'It's just kids being silly and lighting little fires.'
Meanwhile another scrub fire caused major traffic delays on State Highway 2 in the Hutt Valley yesterday.
At Wellsford, north of Auckland, more than 55 firefighters battled a fire which spread from a controlled burn. A helicopter dropped monsoon buckets of water on the 200m by 500m area.
At Pukekohe firefighters used railway tracks to reach a fire on a farm. And a Taranaki hall described by locals as a great community asset was destroyed by fire early yesterday