Frustration over lack of access to homes
Teapot Valley resident Dorje Strang is frustrated he hasn’t been able to return home, close to two weeks after his family was evacuated when the fire broke out.
A neighbour who lives only 30 metres from his house was allowed back home, but Strang wasn’t. As a result, he questioned the ongoing risks associated with the fire.
He said his children were upset at being away from home and he had been unable to work.
‘‘The kids haven’t been in their own beds for two weeks.
‘‘We’ve been in and out, we can’t plan anything.’’
Two weeks ago, Strang and other residents were in the thick of things, putting in firebreaks themselves. Several of them worked together through the night to save a friend’s property. Now, he was struggling to get any information about what was going on.
As far as he understood having read the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act, people were only able to be evacuated if there was an immediate threat to human life. ‘‘I’m so over it.
‘‘We are not idiots, we don’t need to be managed like this.’’
He suspected that people were being kept away from their homes until the rain that was forecast for the weekend eventuated.
Civil Defence Nelson Tasman group controller Roger Ball said he could understand residents’ frustration, and that every day they had been working to get those people back into their homes.
‘‘This fire is certainly not out, it is still burning and we are digging up significant root clumps that are still burning.’’
At a briefing yesterday afternoon, it was announced the remaining 250 evacuated residents of Eves, Redwood and Teapot valleys would be allowed home from tomorrow morning, all going well.
It was also hoped they would have extended access to their properties today from 8am to 4pm.
Ball said a community meeting held tonight at Hope Community Church would be a chance for Civil Defence staff to sit down with evacuated residents and talk to them individually about the risks on their properties.
While there had been temporary access for those whose homes were in the fire-affected valleys ‘‘almost every day’’, decisions had been made around safety given the ongoing flare ups.
‘‘This fire is a long, long way from out,’’ Ball said.