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TUESday OCTOBER 14 2014
Selwyn Times
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Chopper used to hunt arson suspect BY KYLE KNOWLES
A volunteer firefighter used his helicopter on Sunday morning to try and help catch a suspected arsonist who allegedly lit three fires in the Darfield area. Police had a fair idea of where the suspect was so Mr Mathewson, a Kirwee farmer, went up in his chopper to help. The suspect wasn’t spotted from
the air, but police later found a man walking in the area and arrested him. He was scheduled to appear in the Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with arson. Mr Mathewson said the aerial tactics involved trying to find him from the air – or keeping the suspect lying low until police dogs picked up a scent and found him. A thermal camera on the chopper
A long way from help LUCKY ESCAPE: A man had to walk more than a kilometre to find help, after running off the road near Lake Coleridge. The man was driving on Harper Rd towards Christchurch on a Friday night earlier this month when he apparently lost control on a corner. His ute crashed through a barrier and fell about 4m to the riverbed below, where it was impaled on spikes used to keep the bank from washing away. Heavy machinery recovery company Bus Truck Recovery was called in to lift the ute back onto the road last week. Business owner Nigel Hope said the man was pretty lucky, as the damage could have been a lot worse if the vehicle had fallen differently. As there was no reception in the area, the man had to walk more than a kilometre to find a phone to call for help.
to try and locate the man was used for the first time. It is mainly for detecting hot spots in house fires. The first fire was initially reported as a hedge blaze on McLaughlins Rd, south west of Darfield, about 6.30am. But when firefighters got to the scene, a shed was on fire. Darfield Chief Fire Officer Alan Kittelty said the fire was first reported as just a hedge fire but before
the fire brigades reached it that had changed to being a shed on fire. Mr Kittelty said the shed was fully ablaze but was put out without any trouble. The second fire was reported around half an hour after the first with trees being on fire. The final fire happened just before 7.30am when a tractor was engulfed in blames along the same road where the first two occurred.
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