A fire that tore through thousands of hectares of Northland wetland has been ruled as accidental.
A report into the blaze, which started near the community of Waiharara, found the fire was caused by a permitted burnoff to clear land on an avocado farm. But days later, strong winds reignited its embers.
The ash and embers of last summer's devastating fire are never far from Jeremy White’s mind. In January, the fire tore through his boundary fence.
"It's coming into the paddock about 50 to 100 metres and creeping through the grass because it's dry," he told Newshub in January. "Probably got about 90 hectares out of action out of 180 on this side of the road."
To make matters worse, he's waited months for answers as to how it happened.
"A lack of accountability, lack of no one wanting to put their hand up and do anything or help."
On Monday, Fire and Emergency held a meeting for the community so they could be the first to see the investigation's report.
"The fire started from a permitted fire. It was started and managed inside its permit conditions. Four or five days later, the conditions in this part of the world changed quite exceptionally," said Ron Devlin from Fire and Emergency.
Investigators found several people witnessed smoke on the morning of the fire but had assumed it was a controlled blaze. By the time they realised it was out of control, it was too late to even attempt to contain it to the grass paddock.
Firefighters worked for 50 days to contain the blaze, which spread over 2800 hectares.
"The last time I looked it was just short of about $9.2 million," Devlin said.
But locals feel it's a $9.2 million lesson authorities haven't learnt from.
"We've been having fires since as long as I can remember and nothing changes. So hopefully things may change," one person told Newshub.
For the Whites, it's been a frustrating process dealing with the Department of Conservation to re-fence their property.
It left many of their paddocks unusable for months and forced them to use their winter feed early to keep their cattle alive.
"I wanted it done yesterday and they have to go through a whole lot of rigmarole to get it done," White said.
Disappointed in the lack of support and fearful that not enough has been done to prevent future fires.
