Thousands of residents evacuated due to land fires in New Zealand

News24xx.com - About three thousand residents were evacuated due to land fires in New Zealand which are predicted not to be extinguished for the next few weeks. The New Zealand fire department stated that thousands of residents were evacuated from Wakefield, when the fire began to engulf the area which was only 2 kilometers away from their home at the weekend.

The fire began to spread early last week because very hot weather hit a forest area of ??2,300 hectares.At that time, it was alleged that there was an accident due to an error in the plantation. In addition, there were two small fires which eventually spread.

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The head of the fire department, John Sutton, said that although conditions had now subsided, the fire could still spread. "The situation is still quite hot there and there is a lot of land that has not been burned. Instead of hurrying to say it is safe, we will send firefighters to completely turn off the fire until March" he said.

The Regional Civil Defense Chief, Roger Ball, also said that Wakefield residents were able to return earlier this week but the situation in general was still an emergency. He asked residents who lived close to the fire source to continue to prepare all emergency accommodation until further notice. "Residents who want to go home must understand and accept that they must be prepared to be evacuated again if conditions change" said Ball.

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