Lessons from ashes of Pigeon Valley wildfire

Friday, 9 August 2019

Six months on from the Pigeon Valley wildfire that blanketed Nelson in a smoky haze, authorities warn to be prepared for more big blazes.

It was an extreme fire born out of extreme conditions, but fire bosses say rural homeowners around New Zealand need to be prepared for a repeat of Nelson's Pigeon Valley blaze.

Six months on from the wildfire that swept across more than 2300 hectares of rolling rural land, disrupting thousands of lives, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) is absorbing lessons and preparing for future wildfires.

An independent operational review of the Pigeon Valley firefighting response is due out in October and will be made public.

Fenz incident controller at Pigeon Valley John Sutton believed the extremely high fire risk conditions in Nelson over the summer would not be an isolated case.

* The anatomy of a firefighting operation**

Parts of Canterbury and Bay of Plenty were not too far behind the Nelson risk last summer, and with such dry conditions, fires were 'just a matter of time'.

The Pigeon Valley fire laid waste to more than 2300 hectares.

The other risk factor was the increasing number of people moving to live in the country, often with homes nestled amongst or near vegetation.

The Port Hills fire, above Christchurch in 2017, destroyed 10 homes at the rural-urban interface.

'We have got a lot of work to do to get communities to understand how dangerous a fire environment is and what they can do to help protect themselves and set up protective areas around their houses,' Sutton said.

Pigeon Valley was the first big test of the Fenz structure created by the 2017 merger of the Fire Service, the National Rural Fire Authority and 38 rural fire districts.

Sutton said he was generally happy with the outcome - only one house was lost despite the blaze threatening scores of rural homes.

He was particularly impressed with the efforts of the Nelson and Tasman firefighters - largely volunteer brigades - who managed to protect houses on the first night of the out-of-control blaze on February 5.

The increasing number of rural homes increases the risks during wildfires, fire bosses say.

He was also satisfied with how well urban and rural firefighters worked together - a key area of improvement identified in investigations into the Port Hills fires.

Nelson Tasman deputy principal rural fire officer Jeff White said it unfortunately took an event like Pigeon Valley to alert people to the risks of rural fires.

In particular he said people need to become more aware of the risks from burning embers that could be flung long distances ahead of a fire, and could ignite vegetation that could spread to homes if it was too close.

Having a fire evacuation plan, including a go-bag with important documents, was another important measure.