A fire in a pile of tyres in North Canterbury - which started on Monday night and is only being extinguished by being smothered in clay - is being treated as suspicious.
The tyres needed to be covered in clay to fully extinguish the fire. Photo: RNZ / Conan Young
The blaze was in a smaller stack of truck tyres just metres away from a huge pile of an estimated 600,000 tyres that had been dumped in a paddock near Amberley.
The North Canterbury tyre fire threatened to spread to another huge pile of tyres nearby. Photo: Hurunui District Council
The fire was now under control and excavators were covering it in a layer of clay to extinguish it completely.
Police said the fire was deliberately lit and their inquiries were continuing.
A spokesperson for the land owner said the tyres were owned by a former tenant who had not paid any rent for the land for 12 months.
They said despite the tyres having long been identified as a potential fire risk, their hands were tied when it came to who should remove them, because they did not own them.
The North Canterbury tyre fire at its height. Photo: Hurunui District Council