{"id":12716,"date":"2025-02-17T17:48:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T04:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=12716"},"modified":"2025-02-17T17:48:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T04:48:55","slug":"residents-returning-home-after-large-port-waikato-bush-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=12716","title":{"rendered":"Residents returning home after large Port Waikato bush-fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A two or three hectare bush-fire in Port Waikato is now 70 percent contained.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze forced 14 homes to be evacuated as a precaution &#8211; residents have since retuned to their homes.<\/p>\n<p>FENZ were called to the scene on Maunsell Road, Port Waikato, at 1.40pm on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze burned through layers of vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>A local man who lives on Maunsell Rd said the worst of the flames have been extinguished, but there was still a lot of smoke and acrid smell in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Stephen Smith said he could see three helicopters dumping water on the fire, and it appeared the brigade had been successful in preventing the houses that were at highest risk from any damage.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said the fire had burnt through a wide area, and was threatening an area of pine trees.<\/p>\n<p>He said the weather conditions have been windy this afternoon, which may have made the situation worse.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said emergency services were going door to door to evacuate people.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Communication Centre shift manager Josh Pennefather said FENZ were working with police to contain the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are working to protect those who have been put at risk by the fire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pennefather said three helicopters, seven firetrucks and one water tanker were at the scene containing the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>Police were at the scene helping with the evacuations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--pAiQygWC--\/c_crop,h_375,w_600,x_0,y_200\/c_scale,h_375,w_600\/c_scale,f_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1739763384\/4KBU3BC_image_4_jpg?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"Large bushfire in Port Waikato continues to burn\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1400\" \/><\/p>\n<p>~RNZ<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A two or three hectare bush-fire in Port Waikato is now 70 percent contained. The blaze forced 14 homes to be evacuated as a precaution &#8211; residents have since retuned to their homes. FENZ were called to the scene on Maunsell Road, Port Waikato, at 1.40pm on Monday. The blaze burned through layers of vegetation. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,208,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-lifestyle","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12718,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716\/revisions\/12718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}