{"id":9275,"date":"2024-02-15T05:17:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=9275"},"modified":"2024-02-15T05:17:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:17:59","slug":"port-hills-fire-rages-on-residents-evacuated-dry-weather-to-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=9275","title":{"rendered":"Port Hills fire rages on, residents evacuated, dry weather to continue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A 100-hectare wildfire in Christchurch&#8217;s Port Hills is still not contained; residents are being evacuated and a State of Local Emergency has been declared for Christchurch City (which includes Banks Peninsula) and Selwyn District.<\/p>\n<p>The blaze broke out at about 2.15pm Tuesday in the Worsley area in Port Hills and has spread into Selwyn.<\/p>\n<p>Flames could be seen scaling the hillside near Worsley Spur, setting alight pine trees and vegetation.<\/p>\n<p>More than 130 firefighters were at the scene aided by 12 helicopters, and 25 trucks and tankers. Twenty-two Fire and Emergency crew will continue through the night.<\/p>\n<p>People who have been evacuated from their homes in Early Valley, Worsley Spur, Hoon Hay Valley and Kennedys Bush still cannot return and have no idea yet when they will be able to.<\/p>\n<p>Crews will also be checking overnight on people in Governors Bay and Early Valley Road.<\/p>\n<p>The fire fight will ramp up again in the morning with 23 trucks back on site, as well as 13 helicopters and two planes.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the fire is unknown. FENZ has started an investigation and wants the public&#8217;s help.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s asking anyone who took photos or video of the Port Hills between a 1.45pm and 2.45pm this afternoon to email them in.<\/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--2LhUVFpQ--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1707900842\/6DOHPA0_P1014288_JPG\" alt=\"The Port Hills fire as seen from north of Prebbleton on 14 February 2024. Supplied \/ Owen Pearson\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"caption\">The Port Hills fire as seen from north of Prebbleton on 14 February 2024.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0Supplied \/ Owen Pearson<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Commander Dave Stackhouse said firefighting efforts were focusing on the Worsley Spur flank of the fire and Summit Road. Crews are also carrying out structure protection around properties in Hoon Hay Valley Road.<\/p>\n<p>The public is urged to stay away from the area and not fly drones anywhere near the blaze because the helicopters would need to be grounded.<\/p>\n<p>No houses have been damaged, but five or six homes are under immediate threat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 100-hectare wildfire in Christchurch&#8217;s Port Hills is still not contained; residents are being evacuated and a State of Local Emergency has been declared for Christchurch City (which includes Banks Peninsula) and Selwyn District. The blaze broke out at about 2.15pm Tuesday in the Worsley area in Port Hills and has spread into Selwyn. Flames [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275","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=9275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9277,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9275\/revisions\/9277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}