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Military joins fight against New Zealand wildfires

Xinhua, February 14, 2017 Adjust font size:

The New Zealand military has joined the fight against a series of damaging wildfires that have left one person dead and destroyed homes on the east of the North and South Islands.

A pilot died when a helicopter crashed while helping to fight against the fires in the hills around the South Island city of Christchurch and the surrounding Canterbury region, the New Zealand Police said Tuesday.

Police and the Civil Aviation Authority were investigating the circumstances of the crash, which happened Tuesday afternoon, Superintendent Lane Todd said in a statement.

Meanwhile the district of Hastings, in the lower North Island's Hawke's Bay region, declared a state of local emergency owing to the number and serious of the fires in the district.

Fire crews from around the country had come to Hastings to fight the fires, which had destroyed at least one home and forced dozens of other people to evacuate, the district council said on social media.

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said Tuesday it had sent at least 20 experienced firefighters, backed by state-of-the art firefighting equipment, to help battle scrub fires in Canterbury and Hawke's Bay.

Eighteen NZDF firefighters were using ultra-high-pressure hoses, that could pierce the ground to douse burning tree roots, in Hastings, Sergeant Ben Lockton said in a statement.

"We were directly involved in fighting the fire and on many occasions were only about 20 to 50 meters away from the flames. We stayed vigilant because there were big balls of fire as some treetops were engulfed in flames," Lockton said.

In Christchurch, three two-member firefighting crews from the army had been dispatched to help battle a large bush fire that started late Monday.

Radio New Zealand reported that one house had been confirmed destroyed in the Canterbury fires, and 24 homes had been evacuated.

About 100 people are involved in fighting both fires, with 10 helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft involved as well as several tankers, said the report. Endit