Overnight bush-fire at Port Hills' Taylors Mistake is being treated as suspicious

The bushfire that broke on Christchurch's Port Hills overnight is being treated as suspicious.

The scrub fire at Taylors Mistake was reported shortly after midnight, and spanned about 50 metres when fire crews arrived.

It later doubled in size, and a helicopter was working to reach the hard to access site.

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) said the land in question belonged to the Department of Conservation (DOC).

Residents on the Taylors Mistake access road who have CCTV cameras are being asked to check their footage for the period between 11pm Saturday and 1am Sunday.

Anyone with any further information about the fire should contact police.

Fire Investigator Bruce Irvine said the lives of campers at nearby Godley Head were put at risk by the fire and evacuations were only averted due to the "swift work of fire-fighters".

"There is only one access road to Taylors Mistake, so if anyone in the area saw vehicle movements or has any footage around the time of the fire, we would ask them to contact police on 105, the non-emergency phone number."

Crews from Sumner, Christchurch, Lyttelton and Woolston all attended.

Irvine said FENZ's Canterbury Risk Reduction team would be talking to DOC this week about strategies to mitigate the fire risk on conservation land in the area, given conditions were extremely dry around Christchurch and Banks Peninsula.

The Canterbury region had been in a restricted fire season since Wednesday.