One might be quick to suspect that there is very little relationship between wetlands and wildland fires, yet many terrestrial plant communities in these ecosystems are exceedingly flammable in spite of the fact that they may be associated with mild fire climates. A case in point is a human-caused wildfire that occurred in the wetlands associated with the Awarua Plains some 17 km southeast of Invercargill on the South Island of New Zealand during the spring of 1986. The 'Awarua Fire' originated from a vehicle striking and knocking down a transformer pole at about 1 :22 p.m. NZDT on Tuesday, October 28, 1986.