17 Nov 2008

Fire season starts later than usual

7:56 am on 17 November 2008

A spate of scrub fires over the weekend has signalled the start of the fire season.

On Sunday, fire crews in the Wellington region battled two blazes; one on the Kapiti Coast and one in Lower Hutt.

In the South Island, there were two scrub fires near Ashburton, and one near Five Rivers, north of Invercargill.

The National Rural Fire Authority says it's a late start to the fire season, but the weekend blazes signal the need for extra vigilence.