‘Catastrophic’ fire season looms
A catastrophic fire season is looming in North Canterbury as the summer weather continues to swelter.
North Canterbury principal rural fire officer Bruce Janes said ‘‘things are a lot worse than people seem to realise’’. ‘‘The next rain isn’t forecast until December 21 so it will be almost two months without rain. That will make it catastrophic,’’ Janes said.
‘‘We are currently already having five to eight fire callouts a day in the rural sector. The only saving grace at the moment is no nor-west winds.’’
The fire indices are climbing daily towards extremely dangerous and Janes said the current climate resembled the ‘‘summer of fire’’ back in 2003-04.
On Monday, fire ripped through 14.4 hectares of the ka¯nuka forest in Medbury - the largest remaining area of ka¯nuka vegetation in Canterbury. More worrying, however, were several suspicious fires in the past few days.
Janes said some ‘‘public vigilance and sensibility’’ would go a long way to ensuring the situation doesn’t get out of control.
‘‘Last summer’s Port Hills fire should act as a timely reminder of just what can happen.’’
Fire restrictions come into place in the Hurunui and Waimakariri districts on Saturday, which means no fires without a permit.
DOC’s public conservation land is in a permanent restricted fire season. Forestry and DOC tracks have been closed in Hanmer Springs, while monitoring is in place at Jacks Pass and Jollies Pass Rds daily for fire risk.
After three years of drought, things looked to be on the mend following one of the wettest winters on record. However, the driest November in more than a century has evaporated the work of the winter weather. Waipara and Hanmer Forest had their driest Novembers on record.
At the start of autumn there was 192mm of rain in March and April, with a further 266mm from May-September.
Since November 1, there has been 2mm of rainfall at the Metservice’s Culverden weather station - 39mm less than last November when the region was still in the grip of the drought.
The added growth from the winter rain has only provided more potential fire fuel with the ongoing dry conditions and soil moisture levels decreasing.
While water restrictions were not in place across the board, Janes hoped people would be conserving water, otherwise ‘‘all you will have when your house burns down is a green lawn to camp on’’.
Water restrictions have been put in place in Hanmer Springs after low river levels left storage ponds running short, and also in Amberley.