Pockets of Canterbury have been labelled as some of the most polluted places in Oceania.
Environment Canterbury (ECan) has been tasked with cleaning the air by the World Health Organisation (WHO) but has stopped short of issuing fines for smoky chimneys. Instead, it's hoping to educate people how to light a clean fire.
Winter fires make Cystic Fibrosis sufferer Sarah Findlayson nervous.
"If I breathe too much bad air I'll end up in hospital all the time."
The nine-year-old, along with her school friends, are packing and selling 300kg of kindling wood. It's clean fuel for winter fires. They're trying to smudge out smoggy and smoky winter nights from polluting Canterbury's airways.
"We're all about trying to encourage people to actually burn their wood as cleanly as possible with no visible smoke, and that's all about how you burn it at the beginning," says ECan commissioner David Bedford.
For two years ECan's smoke busters have been patrolling Christchurch streets armed with heat-sensitive infrared guns, detecting and fining anyone with dirty, smoky chimneys.
It didn't prosecute one person last winter and only handed down four warnings. But that's after spotting more than 160 smoky chimneys.
ECan needs to cut back the region's high-pollution nights to just three and, according to Mr Bedford, that's way down from the target set two years ago of 19 smoggy nights.
"We're making huge progress. Now whether we actually meet those targets of three next year, I don't know; I'm not sure."
With the cold nights just beginning for the oncoming winter, the pressure is on ECan and homeowners to burn dry wood and be rid of those smoky chimneys.
Newshub.
