Rain no respite from danger

Fire fighters are urging residents to be vigilant of the continued ‘‘extreme fire risk’’ despite the region receiving its first real rain in weeks.

Principal rural fire officer Ian Reade said the 4mm of rain that fell on Boxing Day had done little to quell the danger.

‘‘We’re a long way from being out of the woods.

‘‘We could potentially have fires like the one in the Christchurch Port Hills.’’

Yesterday, Nelson Airport registered 4.2mm of rain and 20.6mm was recorded at St Arnaud.

Nelson Airport hasn’t measured much rain since November 8, when 10.2mm of rain fell. The last day of significant rain before that was October 8 when 20.8mm fell. From November 14 to December 26 there were no days with more than 1mm of rain in the region.

Reade said the fire risk was higher when it rained because people didn’t acknowledge the residing danger.

‘‘We are forecasted for fine sunny weather the rest of the week, so we’re still in extreme fire danger.’’

The moisture from the rain would dry up fast with a southwest wind.

‘‘We need significant rain over an extended time, which means 30 to 40mm over a day or several days so that it can soak the soil.’’

On Christmas Day, a fast response from rural firefighters stopped families living near a grass fire in Brightwater from being evacuated from their homes.

The fire spotter in the lookout on top of the Richmond Hills saw the fire soon after it started about 4pm on Monday.

Because of the wind and the dry conditions, two trucks from Brightwater, and trucks from Wakefield, Richmond, Mapua, Appleby and Nelson were called out as well as two helicopters.

A helicopter dumped three 500-litre monsoon buckets of water on the fire.

Reade said the fire started when domestic power lines arced in the strong wind, igniting sparks, which dropped into the dry grass in the paddock off Main Rd Hope, near Burkes Bank.

With 50 to 60kmh gusts of wind, the fire moved quickly, with 1.5 to 2 hectares of paddock going up in flames.

Firefighters were ‘‘in the throws of evacuating’’ families from homes in the way of the fire, but managed to stop the blaze before it reached the properties.

Reade said they’ve also had a dozen small grass fires over the last week, started by people mowing their lawns and hitting rocks, or power lines igniting sparks in the wind.

But some of them were started by people using fireworks, which Reade said was ‘‘sad’’ and ‘‘disturbing’’ because they were not meant to be used at this time of year.

Reade said volunteer firefighters were the ones to thank, for giving up their Christmas to put out the fires across the region.

He said no one in the region was allowed to have a fire, and no permits had been given out.

‘‘This includes beach fires, and leave the fireworks in the box until winter time or next November.’’

Reade said people needed to be vigilant while in the outdoors and obey signs restricting access to areas.

‘‘Signs are there for their own safety, we don’t want people in areas where we have high fire risks.

‘‘Because when one starts, and it becomes a big fire, we may not be able to get people out of those areas.’’

MetService meteorologist Tom Adams said apart from yesterday, it was expecting ‘‘no rain for the rest of the year’’ for the region, apart from the ‘‘occasional isolated afternoon shower’’.

However, the long range regional forecast showed 2018 might have ‘‘a pretty wet start’’.