Kiwis are being warned against stockpiling their fireworks for Christmas and New Year’s ahead of a dry and windy El Niño summer.
The advice came as Fire and Emergency NZ crews responded to 31 incidents since they went on sale on Monday.
Why Kiwis are being warned not to save their fireworks for summer – Watch on TVNZ+
Fire and Emergency's acting national manager for community readiness and recovery, Tom Ronaldson, said the majority of callouts involved vegetation fires.
"We have seen [fires at] two toilet blocks that we suspect were caused by fireworks as well as one car," he added.
A 40m by 20m fire in Cashmere was also likely to have been caused by fireworks.
Crews were called out to Christchurch’s Port Hills at 10.30pm last night, with the fire extinguished by midnight.
Ronaldson said the fires on Guy Fawkes night were significantly fewer than last year but added that all of these fires were preventable.
"It's really important that as we come into the weekend, people who are delaying their celebrations, they are making sure that they're being safe with their fireworks, lighting them correctly and checking those conditions before they do so," he said.
Fireworks can only be sold four days a year, but there were concerns about people stockpiling over summer, especially with an El Niño set to become one of the strongest on record – bringing with it windy and dry conditions.
"Do not stock fireworks for Christmas and New Year. We know that El Niño conditions are forecast and what that means is that that fire risk is going to increase. So those small fires that we're seeing at the moment could turn into really, really large fires," Ronaldson said.
Helping You Help Animals (HUHA) chief executive Carolyn Press-McKenzie said the animal protection agency had an emergence deployment team and fires "terrify" them.
"They're very real. They happen very quickly and it's just one spark in dry conditions which you'll only know will be bringing us just one spark and an entire hillside and entire community can go up," Press-McKenzie said.
A fire in Pigeon Valley that burned through 2400 hectares in 2019 was caused by a spark from farming equipment.
"We ended up evacuating 957 animals."
Press-McKenzie said people don't realise how dangerous fireworks can be for animals.
"Emotionally, they really hit them hard, but also it's how the animals react to them too. I mean, I've stood in a paddock with horses when the fireworks have gone off and there's just no calming them down and horses will go through fences."
For those who were considering setting off fireworks, Press-McKenzie had a message: "Just don't – it's not worth it."
Fireworks-related injuries
Last year ACC accepted 289 fireworks-related injury claims. costing $643,688 to help New Zealanders recover – with around one-quarter of them involving children under 10.
ACC's injury prevention manager, James Whitaker, said over the last five years, over 300 children had sustained burn-related injuries.
"They're hurting their hands, their fingers, their wrists and there's also some injuries to people's eyes as well," he said.
Whitaker said there were some simple things people could do to prevent injury, including following instructions, and ensuring young children aren't setting them off or staying too close.
"A lot of parts of New Zealand have free fireworks displays you can go to, so it really pays to go and enjoy those – they're free and no one's going to get hurt," he said.
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