Fire crews were called to a vegetation fire in rural Waimumu southwest of Gore on Monday afternoon after power lines fell in strong winds, setting grass and a hedge alight.
Crews from Gore, Hedgehope and Mataura attended the incident, off Waimumu Rd.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman Alex Norris said the flames spread to a nearby hedge.
“We’ve got about 20 metres worth of hedge currently on fire,” he said.
“We’ve got to work to extinguish this one, hopefully shortly, and go from there.”
Mr Norris said crews waited for the power to be isolated to the area before they started extinguishing the blaze.
“We are advising people that if they’re looking to do any controlled burns or anything like that, don’t do it today, because the winds are coming up,” he said.
The Gore region was under a orange wind warning until this evening.
Gusts were forecast to reach 120kmh in exposed places.
Currently, there were power outages in Waimumu, estimated to be restored by 5pm.
Meanwhile, rain is helping crews battling a separate vegetation fire at Centre Hill in Northern Southland.
Six helicopters were working with monsoon buckets to protect two communications towers in the area after emergency services were alerted to the blaze at about 4pm on Sunday.
Fenz Incident Controller Hamish Angus said it was raining steadily in the area on Monday, with very strong winds.
“While the rain will help in suppressing any remaining fire in the open country, deep-seated areas of burning in mature beech forest will need to be checked and any pockets of fire dug out and extinguished.”
He said the fire was estimated to have affected an area of 80 hectares, mostly high country grazing and an area of native bush on adjoining public conservation land.
He said there were no reports of livestock having been affected by the fire.
Angus said the chopper crews did an “excellent job in very challenging conditions” to protect the two towers.
Crews from Southland volunteer brigades and the Department of Conservation were being arranged to make an assessment on Tuesday morning.
Angus said an investigation into the origin and cause of the fire would be carried out.
— additional reporting ODT Online