Came upon this scene last night. Very frightening for home owners evactuated on Gloaming Hill, Titahi Bay. A big loss for conservation too as the fire took out a huge area of regenerating forest in the Conservation area. The fire had the potential to sweep up a final hill into the residential area in the high winds.
Click to see the full panorama image detail. Gloaming Hill far left, yachts moored in Porirua Harbour centre, and lights of Plimmerton far right. 1.5km fire front at one stage. Teen charged with arson this morning.
UPDATE: Wellington’s DomPost newspaper has just licensed this image to run across a page tomorrow (23 Feb 2010). Keep an eye out.
Love a copy of the photos as Chief fire officer Titahi Bay I was to occupied to take photo’s on the night. I have attended fires of this size early in my career but not of this scale for some time. It was my last large fire prior to my retirement after 40 years as a volunteer fire fighter.