Walking track or fire trap? Signs are a ‘‘guide’’
A popular walking track in Blenheim could become ‘‘one big chimney’’ in a fire, with little chance of escape, the region’s rural fire boss says.
Marlborough Kaiko¯ura principal rural fire officer John Foley said the Quail Stream section of the Wither Hills Farm Park would ‘‘clean you up’’ in the event of a fire.
Firefighters were called to a suspected blaze near the Quail Stream entrance to the track on Tuesday morning after members of the public alerted crews to what they believed to be smoke in the Wither Hills.
The smoke turned out to be a burst water pipe, however Foley said if there had been a fire there, people would have died.
‘‘If we had a fire and it got up into this gully, these people wouldn’t get out of there. We’d be dealing with a fatal fire.’’
Foley said this section of the Wither Hills track was the most dangerous and people were taking their lives in their own hands walking it during summer.
‘‘This is a death trap to be honest, this piece here. This is an area you may not get out of,’’ he said.
‘‘I mean other places, you’ve got potential to escape ... In here I would say it’s just one big chimney,’’ Foley said.
Signs were put up at entrances to the Wither Hills Farm Park at the start of summer advising people to stay off the track between noon and 7pm as that was the most dangerous time of the day.
However, Foley said the signs were a ‘‘guide’’ and people needed to ensure they were making their own judgements outside those hours.
‘‘Just because that’s saying midday till 7, they’ve got to look at it and go well today’s probably not a good time to go,’’ he said.
Foley said fires could gather speed on slopes and even the fastest runner in Marlborough would not be able to outrun the flames.
‘‘Even the old king and queen of the Wither Hills would struggle to outrun it, well they wouldn’t outrun it,’’ he said. ‘‘The heat of the fire and smoke may well clean you up before the flames even got to you. If we get a day that’s 25, 29 degrees [Celsius] with a bit of wind behind it, if we got a fire started, it would run,’’ he said.
Firefighters and police were called to the Wither Hills about 8.30am.
Foley said crews initially wondered whether the suspected fire was started by an arsonist.
‘‘It certainly shot through our heads. Any fire in the farm park does raise suspicions because there is nothing out here to cause a fire really,’’ he said.
A spate of suspicious fires were lit across Blenheim in 2016 including at the Wither Hills Farm Park.
In 2000, a fire on Boxing Day tore through 7000 hectares of grassland on the Wither Hills.
Foley was reluctant to share what measures emergency services had in place to deal with arsonists as it might give them ‘‘fuel for thought’’, however he said police were also attending callouts that appeared suspicious.