Wind turbine on fire on Tararua Range, near Palmerston North

Credit: Hawke's Bay Today | 6 Oct, 2021 | www.nzherald.co.nz ~~

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A wind turbine caught on fire at Mercury’s Tararua Wind Farm on Wednesday afternoon. Photo / Supplied

A wind turbine is on fire at a wind farm near Palmerston North.

Emergency services were called to the site near Aokautere, Palmerston North, at 2.40pm, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson said.

“It’s a windmill on fire,” he said.

Four fire trucks and a tanker responded but left shortly after 4pm, as they were “unable to assist”, he said.

The fire was being left to burn overnight under the management of on-site contractors.

A spokesperson for Mercury NZ Ltd confirmed the wind turbine was one of theirs at the Tararua Wind Farm.

The spokesperson confirmed they were aware of a “localised fire” in one of the turbines there.

“Our on-site contractors Vestas confirmed that nobody is in danger and that emergency services are on site.”

Emergency services were called to the site of a wind turbine on fire near Aokautere, Palmerston North, on Wednesday afternoon. Photo / Jakob Stone

A spokesperson for Vesta said an employee reported smoke which was coming from a wind turbine about 2pm before contacting emergency services who were managing the incident.

“Vestas can confirm that no people were near the turbine at the time of the incident, all employees have been accounted for, and there are no reported injuries.

“Site personnel have temporarily paused the wind turbines in that area of the wind farm and commenced an incident investigation.”

They said it was too early to comment on or confirm the cause of the fire but confirmed Vestas would undertake a detailed Root Cause Analysis to determine what caused the incident.

The wind farm was acquired by the company when it took over Tilt Renewables’ New Zealand operations in August this year.

The Tararua Wind Farm stands on 700 hectares of private farmland in the Tararua Range with 103 wind turbines on site.

Source: Hawke's Bay Today | 6 Oct, 2021 | www.nzherald.co.nz

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