Locals are being urged to prepare their properties for a heightened wildfire risk as a super El Niño raises the prospect of a dry summer.
Firefighter Craig Piner is in charge of community risk management for Nelson Marlborough fire district, and he says good grass growth now will lead to more fuel for fires when it dries out. That means a heightened fire risk and he remembers the Pigeon Valley wildfire well.
He says the region should expect similar dry conditions to the February 2019 Pigeon Valley fire which burned around 2,300ha, including commercial plantation forest, property and pasture.
The super El Niño this year is expected to produce a long, dry, windy spring and summer that will increase the fire danger. Already, he says fire crews have attended fires where windy weather has reignited previously burnt piles of vegetation weeks after they were originally lit.
Ninety-eight per cent of wildfires in New Zealand are started by people and their activities, and Craig says the public needs to be aware of the dangers and take heed.
“We just need people to do their bit.”
He can’t stress enough the need to be prepared, from clearing dead and dry vegetation around homes and buildings, making sure fire trucks can get onto the property, especially through tree-lined driveways, and ensuring emergency numbers are clearly visible.
“Everyone should be managing their grass where possible, because as it browns and dries off, it becomes a fire hazard. Managing that grass now and leading into the fire season can help prevent anything happening.
“Those people who have roadside frontages should consider mowing that as well, because the council and NZTA aren’t doing it like they used to and once that grass cures, the roadside has really long vegetation. If you have a breakdown in your car or someone has travel sickness and you pull off the road into that grass, then the exhaust sets off the fire. If you mow it, there’s a lot less fuel to burn.
“With El Niño coming, the work that you would normally do around your property in November and December to tidy things up, probably needs to be done now and in October.
“We need everybody to do their bit to prevent the fires happening in the first place. That’s the best response we can have – not have the fire in the first place.”
One of the messages in Fire and Emergency’s summer campaign is ‘ownership of fires’, meaning: “your fire, you are responsible for it”, whether it is a fire in the backyard or below the tide line on a beach.
Craig advises anyone intending to light a fire to look at the CheckIt’sAlright website, and says the region is likely to move from an open fire season to a restricted or prohibited season earlier than usual this year due to the El Niño effect.
Fire and Emergency will be talking with groups soon about closing some public areas as the region dries out, because he says it becomes challenging to evacuate people from those areas if a fire starts.
“This is our first El Niño in a long time and it’s a strong one. We’re asking people in our region to prepare their properties for a wildfire season.”
