Maraekakaho Rural Fire Brigade

31/08/2026

Tip for the day – give your smoke alarm a quick vacuum once a month!

Living in a rural area that gets dry and more than a bit windy in spring, we inevitably get dust inside our houses. This sometimes contributes to smoke alarms going off – a good way to avoid this is to put the vacuum up to them once a month. You don’t need to take them off the ceiling – just take the attachment off the end of the vacuum pipe and run it over the vents of the smoke alarm.

If you’d like a home fire safety visit from the local team, give Linda a call on 021 215 9187. There’s no cost - Linda and Mark can check smoke alarms, install an extra free one if you need it, and provide some home fire safety education for the family.

30/08/2026

If you have lit burn piles in the last few weeks, please take some time this afternoon to make sure they are fully extinguished and secure.

Strong Wind Warning from 7pm tonight (Sunday 30th August). See MetService for more details.

Any problems with control, call 111.

29/08/2026

We need your help!

In 2022, we successfully deployed eight publicly available AED’s around Maraekakaho and surrounding areas. As these reach four years of age, they each require a new battery pack which we are now fundraising for.

The latest stats show that across New Zealand, people who experience a cardiac arrest had a 2.4x increased survival rate if an AED was used in the community prior to emergency services arriving. This is even more important in rural places like Maraekakaho, where Ambulance in particular typically respond from Hastings and the initial care in the community is critical.

With each battery/pad pack costing ~$550, we need any support you can provide. The easiest way to donate is to make a deposit to the Maraekakaho Church Hall Trust - the details are;

Maraekākaho Church Hall Trust Board
03 1518 0005935 000

Please include your name in the particulars box and “AED donation” in the reference box. If anyone wants a tax receipt, please email [email protected].

You can always find the nearest AED to you if you download the “AED Locations” app to your smartphone.

The original project was a joint effort by the fire brigade, Focus MKK and the Maraekakaho Church Hall Trust. We’re continuing to work together on resilience initiatives including some more work around medical incidents in the community - stay tuned!

28/08/2026

Winter is a great time to get your property ready for a more active spring and summer fire season. One of the key things is to ensure your driveway has plenty of access for fire trucks (4m wide by 4m high) and that your RAPID number is visible at your gate. Without 4m by 4m access, a response to a fire may be delayed - not what you want on your own property.

Also keep in mind that Fire (including a red truck from Hastings) respond alongside Ambulance to serious medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests. We need visible RAPID numbers and good 4m x 4m access year round. If you’re on a shared driveway, a second number where your driveway branches off is also really useful when we’re trying to find the right house (especially at night).

If you’ve burnt piles recently, check they are extinguished. It is forecast to get windy again on Sunday and Monday - we’ve had plenty of callouts in the past when strong wind has bought old burn piles back to the surface and started new fires.

23/08/2026

The crew out training today - Val, Rochelle and Nat. The focus was establishing a water supply and initial attack, with the Torran brigade.

21/08/2026

Don’t wait until there’s smoke in the air to prepare!

This short video talks about low flammability planting, particularly to reduce risk around houses in rural areas, but it also touches on other steps you can take to improve the ability of emergency services to access and fight fires on your property.

Now is a good time to have a look around your property and take some steps to reduce fire risk ahead of summer.

Carefully planning what you plant on your property can help you sta...

15/08/2026

We are anticipating a drier and windier spring and summer this year with El Niño. Winter is a great time to work on reducing the wildfire risk around your house while you have time.

In the zone immediately around your house;

1. Clear your gutters, decks and sides of the house of leaves and debris
2. Cut back long grass or excess vegetation, and keep it mowed
3. Get rid of dead plants, branches or any other flammable material

Further out from the house, keep the vegetation spaced out. Trim or remove trees, and prune branches within 2m of the ground.

These steps help reduce the risk of a fire burning up (or spotting close) to your house, and create space that firefighters can potentially defend in the event of a fire. If you’ve done the work to lower the risk, it’s easier for fire crews to take the decision to protect your property when they are assessing their own safety.

Check out the following link for more information https://www.checkitsalright.nz/reduce-your-risk/protecting-your-property

14/08/2026

Good advice, particularly;

1. If you have a large burn planned, now is the time to get it done.

2. Large piles can smoulder for a long time, so make sure they are completely extinguished before fire danger increases.

Let us know when you’re lighting your burn: 0800 658 628 or checkitsalright.nz

Read the rest of the post for other advice. We also posted a video on how to approach a burn a couple of weeks ago.

✅ Do you have any large burns planned?

✅ Or are you planning a large burn such as a burn pile, skid site, forestry slash or any other large burn?

✅ Now is the time to undertake these fires, with the prediction of an El Nino summer approaching.

❗️Information below:

🔥 El Niño could bring a dangerous fire season for NZ.

An El Niño is forecast, bringing drier conditions through late winter and a warmer, drier and windier summer, particularly in our District.

This could mean a much higher wildfire risk, with escaped fires becoming harder to control. Fire restrictions and prohibitions may need to be introduced earlier this year.

🔥 If you have a large burn planned, now is the time to get it done. Large piles can smoulder for a long time, so make sure they are completely extinguished before fire danger increases.

If you can’t burn the whole pile, reduce the size and feed the fire gradually.

📲 Let us know when you’re lighting your burn:
0800 658 628 or checkitsalright.nz

Let’s stay safe and reduce the risk of escaped fires this summer.

04/08/2026

Great opportunity to practice with another couple of brigades!

01/08/2026

We are currently in open fire season. If you're looking to burn piles of slash or other material, the following video provides lots of hints on how to burn it safely. Later in spring, Maraekakaho can start to dry out and experience strong westerlies which can bring anything still burning underground or large material like stumps back to life. With the El Niño conditions forecast this year, it’s reasonable to expect higher than normal fire risk as we get into spring and through into summer.

https://youtu.be/v3zNvZDaPCw?si=FxULDFeqSaoSX3Lv

• Do not light more than you can manage or fully extinguish.
• Monitor the fire for the duration of the burn until it is completely out and keep checking for embers in the days/weeks after your burn.
• Be ready to respond to changing wind or weather conditions or fire behaviour.
• If the burn escapes or gets out of control, call 111 immediately – better that we come out sooner rather than later.
• Ensure you're equipped with a suitable means to contain and extinguish the fire (e.g. water hose, water sprayer, shovel and dirt to smother, mechanical digger etc).

You can use the Check Its Alright website (link in comments) to look forward over the next five days and select the best time to light your pile. Also check the HBRC rules around burning (including what you can burn and what you can’t), particularly if you are in one of the urban airsheds down on the Heretaunga Plains.

Graeme Still, Fire and Emergency National Wildfire Specialist, visi...