'The flames were massive': Residents fled Far North blaze during New Year's lunch

Saturday, 1 January 2022

FENZ Northland district manager Wipari Henwood talks about the three-pronged approach to protecting the Kaimaumau community from a huge scrub blaze on Monday.

Bernice Robson and Patty Nehemia-Horne from Kaimaumau were preparing a New Year’s Day lunch when their neighbour urged them to check out the growing flames from a lookout near their home.

By the time they got back from witnessing the 20- to 30-metre-high peat fire with dozens of other onlookers, the instructions had come that it was time to get out, and smoke from the Waiharara fire had started filling the house.

Practised from the last evacuation just before Christmas, Robson and Nehemia-Horne, and their friend and house guest, photographer Charlie Edwards, packed up their essentials and dogs into the car and headed to Waiharara School with the rest of the town.

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The Waiharara Fire as seen from Kaimaumau as residents were evacuating to Waiharara School to avoid the flames.

“The flames were massive,” says Charlie Edwards.

“Well, it looked like camp city up there,” Robson laughed.

“There were caravans, campervans; there were tents, trailers, boats, animals by the dozen.”

Bernice Robson and Patty Nehemia-Horne’s home began to fill with fog right as they started to leave for Waiharara School.

A scrub fire continues near Kaimaumau in the Far North.

The group soon found their friends from the last night at the school, and prepared to settle in for the day and night.

One of their friends even offered to finish cooking the chops Nehemia-Horne had rescued from the barbecue on her van’s stove.

But it wasn’t all fun and picnics.

“The horror stories was seeing it approaching the village,” Edwards said. “The flames were massive.”

On Friday night, the blaze didn’t look too threatening, Robson said. But overnight, a change of wind had ramped up the fire and threatened to send it close to Kaimaumau, prompting Fire and Emergency to ask residents to leave around 2pm on Saturday. They were able to return home around 7pm.

An image of the Far North fire, taken from Rangiputa on New Year’s Day.

In a community briefing at 5.30pm, Northland Fire and Emergency fire incident controller John Sutton said the size of the fire combined with the strength of the wind was “a bit beyond us,” but they managed to control it enough to let families head home.

The Waiharara fire has been burning for a fortnight, and is now around 2370 hectares with a 31km perimeter.

A timelapse, captured by Noah Dickinson, showing the fire burning at Waiharara on Saturday afternoon.

Tomorrow, four helicopters with six bulldozers and excavators will get to work alongside fire crews to handle the blaze.

Around 65 residents sheltered at Waiharara School, but locals estimate at least 200 people had to leave Kaimaumau, with more people in the town than usual thanks to the holidays.

“I know it’s been an anxious afternoon for you, and we all appreciate you getting out so quickly,” Sutton told residents earlier on Saturday.

“When that sea breeze came in, it blew the fire into the [containment] line. We’ve got an ability to handle fire up to a certain amount of wind, and a certain size, and that was a little bit beyond us.

“But we’re holding it now.”

Sutton said Sunday’s weather forecast will help control the blaze.

Earlier on New Year’s Day residents had been asked to stay away from the beaches around Kaimaumau due to the fire, which began in mid-December but flared up again on New Year’s Eve.

The beach access road north of Kaimaumau has been closed on New Year’s Day as Fire and Emergency's ground crews and a helicopter fight the flames which continue within a perimeter 31km-across.

Far North Fire still burning this morning, near Kaimaumau Village. Pic taken from Rangiputa beach.

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'This is an active fire, and we cannot ensure the safety of any member of the public who chooses to go in there,' Sutton said.

Sutton said the fire ground was off limits to residents and visitors. The fire was controlled but was still burning.

Sutton said as well as the many fires inside the firebreaks other hazards included fire-damaged trees, deep holes left by diggers, peat fires burning underground, and areas of wetland.

'We ask everyone in the Kaimaumau, Waiharara and Houhora areas to please think about the safety of their whānau and friends, and stay well away from the fireground,' Sutton said.

'Fires are dynamic and the situation can change very quickly.'

Cable Bay resident Robyn Judge took an image of the fire from Rangiputa beach at 10.30am, and said she was surprised at the height of the flames.

She said a local she met on the beach said the fire seemed to gain momentum at around 1am.

The wind, she said, appeared to be blowing away from the threatened Kaimaumau Village, which would be a relief to residents.

The fire, which began in a peat bog, has been burning since December 18.

In mid-December the fire moved south towards the small village of Kaimaumau, from which residents were evacuated, before being allowed to return home.

The blaze has ripped through more than 2000 hectares of land.

In late-December the Department of Conservation gave permission for Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) to use a chemical approach, where flame retardant dumped from an aircraft releases a gas that suppresses the fire.