Fire fighters are concerned about the public's understanding of where they are allowed to light residential fires. The problem arises owing to knowledge of where exactly the Tauranga city limits are.
People who live within Tauranga City Council boundaries can light a fire.

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Outside the city boundaries – and in many places that is just across the road, it is the Western Bay Moana Rural Fire Authority district and restricted fire season rules apply. These include not being able to light a fire during the hours of darkness and fires during the day require a permit – unless it is a cultural cooking fire, such as for a hangi.
In the Western Bay Moana Tauranga Moana district, even a cultural cooking fire is not permitted to burn during the hours of darkness during the restricted fire season.
The rural fire district includes the territory covered by the Western Bay of Plenty District and the islands within the harbour and Motiti.
Fire fighters were sent to Mohuhoa Island last week to put out a fire burning at night.
The sea boundary between the two authorities is the mean high water level, which is why a small fire on the beach is permitted, as long as it is below the high tide mark.
Fires above the high tide mark are subject to either Tauranga City Council or Western Bay Moana rules and will be extinguished.
'It is a little bit higgeldy piggeldy,” says Greerton Fire Station officer Richard Worthington.
'Under Western Bay Moana bylaws for a normal permitted fire, it has to be out by the hours of darkness, whereas on the Tauranga side you don't have to put it out because they don't have permits.”
Principal rural fire officer for the Western Bay Moana, Barry Low, says there are a few grey areas, which the two services sort out between themselves as the issues arise.
But regardless of differences, the basic ground rules for open fires on residential properties remain the same. Open fires are to be no bigger than a metre by a metre in area. They shouldn't create a smoke nuisance for neighbours and there must be a connected garden hose within reach. They have to be three metres from the property boundary and five metres from a structure.