However, Fire and Emergency has refused to confirm the two fires are being treated as arson.

Auckland Council’s co-governance and co-management representative says they have been told by fire crews the blaze on Māngere mountain at the weekend was intentionally lit.

Te Waka Tai-ranga Whenua kaiwhakahaere Joe Hammon told RNZ they spoke with Fire and Emergency on Sunday.

“They explained it to be intentionally lit from the top centre of the crater,” he said.

“The fire has then spread evenly downwards towards the bottom of the crater, both left and right of the crater, and as you can see in the photos in media, the whole wall of the crater right down to the bottom has been burnt to charcoal.”

    • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
      0·
      11 days ago

      Haha that’s a quote from someone, but the author really should include relevant photos if they are going to quote that.

      Here are some from the NZH article:

      photo of the burning mountain at dusk, showing the top of the mountain (covered in grass) with the entire inside of the crater in flame

      Photo in daylight of the crater, fire is out but it's all charred black

        • Dave@lemmy.nzOPM
          0·
          11 days ago

          Haha that’s amazing! It does seem like the photographer, Hayden Woodward, seems to work with NZH. I guess they paid him for some photos and then planted them in a syndicated RNZ article.