Volunteers share fire recovery burden
Volunteer work has started to help those affected by the fires in Christchurch’s Port Hills and the call is out for more people to get involved next weekend.
The Reese family lost their home in the fires, which they had lived in for about 30 years.
Property owner Ken Reese said the volunteer help ’’made all the difference’’.
‘‘Jobs like cutting down [and clearing] a tree … it turns a fivehour job into a one-hour job, so it’s really great to have them to come up and do that,’’ Reese said.
Carol Reese said it was ’’everyone’s help that’s going to get us through it - not even just the volunteers, but everyone’s been amazing’’.
Twenty-two volunteers were let in past the cordon on Worsleys Rd over two days at the weekend, to help property owners in the huge job of clearing up after the Port Hills fires.
This first volunteer effort was organised in less than 48 hours by list MP Nuk Korako, who is planning to do it again this weekend.
He said it was an opportunity for ‘‘people to come in as a volunteer and help these people’’.
Korako said it was important that anyone who wanted to help signed up first so the work could be co-ordinated. As of Sunday evening, a cordon was still in place for Worsleys Rd with firefighters still clearing hotspots from properties. Korako is developing a work programme for the weekend. He plans to spread volunteers to properties along the road and give them a job such as clearing burnt shrubbery or gardens, moving debris into the skips provided by the council, and other clean-up work.
Worsleys Rd spokeswoman Jo Kinley said ‘‘every little bit of help helps up here. It just takes little things to make huge differences in people’s lives.’’
Yesterday, building company Jim the Builder, excavator operators Complete Earthworks, and hire company Alpha Hire provided some machine time to help smooth out the land damaged by fire breaks during the firefighting.
Jim the Builder managing director Andrew Clark said fire breaks cut in to protect houses ‘‘effectively just mowed everyone’s fences’’ so they were going to smooth out those areas so fences could be reinstalled.