Residents want better management of firebreaks

Friday, 15 February 2019

Fire and Emergency Principal Rural Fire Officer for Nelson-Tasman Ian Reade speaks in the first days of the Pigeon Valley fire.(First published 2019)

Residents living at the edge of land devastated by the Tasman district wildfires are calling for the better management of firebreaks at forestry block perimeters.

At a community meeting in Appleby Pigeon Valley resident Peter Jones voiced his concerns regarding the way firebreaks were managed at the perimeter of properties neighbouring forestry.

Jones' South Branch Rd property backs onto forest land not far from where the 2000ha fire started on February 5.

In his 30 years' of living in the area, Jones said the onus had gradually fallen on residents to ensure a safe barrier between their properties and forests.

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'Years ago we used to have firebreaks, decent ones, but when they logged it they didn't put fire breaks back in - they said; 'the people's paddocks will be the firebreaks from now on.'

During the Tasman wildfires crews using heavy machinery have worked to put in strategically placed firebreaks in places they anticipated fire creep, focusing on high-priority areas.

'I've heard they've put some 50-metre breaks in at some points … I think in hindsight if they had a lot more in, it would have meant a lot more prevention - as long as they bulldozed regularly and made sure they were maintained with no gorse or undergrowth.'

Jones said if forest companies implemented a minimum firebreak of 30m from their boundaries it would provide peace of mind for those in the vicinity of forestry areas like Pigeon Valley.

'Even before the fires, their argument was that there was a lot of forestry to get around. But if they had that boundary … it might have made a difference. I don't know. But at least that would have been 30 metres from his boundary and wouldn't have gone any further than the paddock.'

Pigeon Valley resident Peter Jones said the onus had gradually fallen on residents to ensure a safe barrier between their properties and forests.

Kath Eginton has lived in the valley for 11 years.

While residents had been told that fire fighting technology continued to evolve, she was adamant that once replanting got underway, the development of new firebreaks was necessary between neighbouring properties and forest blocks.

However, Eginton agreed that any barrier required proper maintenance to be effective.

Tasman district rural zone residents were subject to a 30-metre separation distance between buildings and plantation forests as way to contain fires in proximity to an isolated rural building.

The start of the Pigeon Valley fire that turned into a major fire storm.

However, both Jones and Eginton had regularly encountered plantation trees encroaching or falling on their properties.

'I ring [landowners] Tasman Pine Forests and they do send a guy out to fix it up, but the damage is done,' Jones said.

'It's always going to worry us and we knew that when we bought here - it's just a fact of life - I'm not trying to point the finger at anybody, but they do need to plant the trees further back from the boundaries,' Eginton said.

The total area affected by the fire is approx 2300ha of which approximately 1400ha is owned by Tasman Pine Forests Limited. This is about 60 per cent of the total burnt area.

Tasman Pine Forests chief operating officer Steve Chandler said 'extensive widening' of existing firebreaks and clearing of areas adjacent to roads had been undertaken to ensure the risk of further fire spread was minimised.

This was standard practice to contain the fire within a defined perimeter.

'Large firebreaks are not generally constructed as part of normal forest operations as they can easily become weed infested increasing the fire risk and have found to be ineffective in large fires due to wildfires from a flame front having the ability to 'spot' 200-500m ahead of the fire,' he said.

Under the National Environmental Standards for forestry plantations which came into effect in May 2018, there are no specific regulations or requirements for firebreaks.

In fire-prone areas of Australia like Western Australia, local government may issue fire-break notices at any time requiring land occupiers to install and maintain fire-breaks around their property boundaries.

None of Nelson Forests 60,000ha of productive forest was directly affected by the bush fire. Managing director Lees Seymour said firebreaks were one tool that 'sometimes work, and sometimes don't.'

The last few days had shown that they were not a silver bullet when disaster struck and appropriate preparedness and response measures should be the first priority in fire prevention.

He thought firebreaks were the wrong focus.

'In this case the fire entered from outside of the forest boundary … in the conditions we had the fire was jumping hundreds of metres ahead of itself because of the wind, so they were completely ineffective. I know it is a visual thing, but there's a whole host of other more effective methods for preventing fire.'

Seymour said it was also up to the wider community to have conversations on protecting people, property and livelihoods

'We're all in this together – we have friends and family who have been affected so we all need to have that discussion about what we do next, how we prepare ourselves for situations like this if they occurred next year?'