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Speaker 1: Fire investigators reckon. They found the exact spot where the

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Speaker 1: Porthills fire started in February this yet you'll remember it.

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Speaker 1: It burned for about three weeks. One hundred households were evacuated.

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Speaker 1: It burned through six hundred and fifty hectares day. Excuse me,

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Speaker 1: Dave Stackhouse is fire an emergencies district commander and with us.

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Speaker 1: Hey Dave, good evening, and well thank you. So where

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Speaker 1: did it start?

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Speaker 2: As I said, it's started fifteen meters on from Worsley

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Speaker 2: Spear and an area of five meters by five meters,

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Speaker 2: So cracked down the point of origin. But unfortunately, the

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Speaker 2: point of origin of the fires on private properties, so

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Speaker 2: we aren't disclosing the exact location.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and the person who owns the property is actually

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Speaker 1: working with you guys, right, they're not a suspect.

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Speaker 2: That's correct. We interviewed the property only three times and

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Speaker 2: he was cooperative throughout the entire investigation.

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Speaker 1: And no idea what started it.

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Speaker 2: It's just the investigos worked pretty hard obviously there you know,

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Speaker 2: we're there and the public interest in this fire, as

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Speaker 2: with all of our investigations, but we have to have

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Speaker 2: enough evidence to satisfy removal all the ignition factors, and

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Speaker 2: we're looking for that positive ignition factor and we weren't

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Speaker 2: able to determine it in this case.

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Speaker 1: Property owner has no idea.

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Speaker 2: He was on scene at the time or just prior

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Speaker 2: to the ignition, then realized there was a fire there

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Speaker 2: when he saw it and died one on one. So

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Speaker 2: he did the right thing. And as I said, he's

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Speaker 2: cooperated with the New Zealand Police and Foreign Emergency during

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Speaker 2: the investigation.

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Speaker 1: Dave, is it a part of the property that other

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Speaker 1: people can access?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 1: Can you can you walk off the road onto the

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Speaker 1: property or something like that.

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Speaker 2: Where's the tracks? Quite well, all the tracks around the

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Speaker 2: portals are widely used for the mountain bikers and walking

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Speaker 2: and running tracks, so where's they track and road as

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Speaker 2: widely used by the public throughout the year.

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Speaker 1: So am I right in thinking this is the end

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Speaker 1: of the investigation. You've taken it as far as you can.

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Speaker 1: If there's more info, you'll take another look at it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we've said as classified is undetermined, but if

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Speaker 2: faurly evidence comes to light, New Zealand Police and Foreign

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Speaker 2: Emergency will reopen it and examine that evidence and see

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Speaker 2: what comes from that good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Dave, thanks very much and hopefully something does come

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Speaker 1: to light this Dave Stackhouse, the district Commander Fire and Emergency,

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Speaker 1: Chloe Swaarbrick is going to be with us in fifteen minutes.

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Speaker 1: I'm dying to ask her whether she actually thinks she's

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Speaker 1: got the seventy five percent to kick Darlene out. So

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Speaker 1: bearwith we'll get there shortly five twenty one. For more

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Speaker 1: from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks

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