Ashes behind the cordon
At a house in the hills above the Redwood Valley, a swimming pool has been commandeered to resupply helicopters with water to fight the 2000-hectare fire in Tasman.
Every five minutes a chopper flies in, hovers over the pool for about 30 seconds to fill its monsoon bucket, before heading off into the smoke and fire over the hills.
Around the house the fire is no longer an immediate threat, but the charred and blackened landscape show just how close it came to burning down.
A nearby shed lies in a smouldering heap, and in the trees surrounding the property the ground lies thick with grey ash.
For the past two days, contractors Robbie Bryan and Neil Watson have been bringing in water to fill the helicopter, 9000 litres at a time.
The contractors have been working 14-hour shifts, starting at 7am before clocking out at 9pm.
Bryan reckons they probably made between 35 and 40 loads of water on their truck throughout the day yesterday.
‘‘I worked out in Kaikoura after the earthquake there, I thought that was a once in a bloody lifetime event – but here we are again.
‘‘It’s good to part of the effort though ... we’ll do it until it gets done.’’
The Nelson 212 volunteer fire brigade is also present, methodically working around the houses in the valley to damp down any hotspots.
The 212 has been fighting the fire from the beginning, working on evacuations and fire checks on Tuesday afternoon, before being
tasked with property protection in the Redwood Valley.
Firefighter Chris Noonan was one of the crew there from the very start.
He said the most intense period was during the early hours of Wednesday morning.
‘‘That’s when you feel the sheer intensity, you can see it moving and you’ve got to get in there and protect property and stock – you can see the flames two metres away at people’s back doors.’’
The 212 worked to about 10am on Wednesday morning, making sure the houses were safe.
‘‘Mentally you know you’ve done a good job, you’ve got there and protected people’s property.
‘‘Physically you’re gone. You’re constantly moving, there’s no time to sit down when you’re fighting it.’’
Dereck Nilsen said they were getting enough rest in between shifts now, but the physicality of the work still took a toll.
‘‘You’re absolutely shattered at the end of the day – the key is just to keep hydrated.’’
Station officer Jason Everett said the main job for the crew at the moment was to damp down hotspots and prevent any fires from flaring up again.
He said even with good conditions, it would take many days before the crews would be finished working in the area.