A New Year's Eve fireworks display at the property of an American billionaire has been investigated by an expert after it's believed to have caused a large vegetation blaze.
The fire was in Dalefield, just outside of Queenstown, and was at the property of Tony Malkin, both the NZ Herald and Stuff reported. He is the chairman, president, and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, and this trust owns the Empire State Building in New York City.
Malkin's New Year's Eve fireworks plan was a 14-minute display to ring in 2023.
Fire and Emergency were called to the area at 12:10am on Sunday. They said there were three separate fires burning in tussock on steep terrain, but these were contained at about 2:30am. It's estimated the fires burnt 1.2 hectares of land.
A photo of the blaze supplied to Newshub shows a plume of smoke billowing into the night sky as the fire rages on the hillside.
A Fire and Emergency spokesperson told Newshub a specialist fire investigator carried out a scene investigation on Sunday.
"His report will be prepared and reviewed in the normal way before being released," they said.
"Without pre-empting what will be in the report, we can confirm that it was related to fireworks."
A spokesperson for the Malkin family told the Otago Daily Times they "are deeply grateful for the expert work of Fire Emergency New Zealand and the police".
Neighbours were warned of the fireworks plans in December after a public notice was issued in local newspaper Mountain Scene.
The plans caused outrage, with an online petition launched called 'Neighbours with animals say Neigh to Queenstown fireworks'. It received more than 600 signatories.
One neighbour moved her horse away from the area while the fireworks display happened, and later returned to see the fire burning.
"We waited until 2:30am and then thought it was safe to go to sleep," Daniela Schneider told Stuff.
She said she hoped the display was "just a one-off".
Another local, Liz Park, said she gave up her New Year's Eve party and instead spent it with her daughter's retired eventing horse, who lives on a block of land in Dalefield.
"I wish I could have a photo for you of the horse's eyes. They were bulging out of his head," she told the Otago Daily Times.
Park said the 18-year-old horse, named Louie, didn't bolt the fences, but his reaction was still "bloody horrific".
