‘Productive day’ as wind remains low

NELSON: Fire crews who have been battling a massive blaze in the Tasman for six days had some respite yesterday when predicted strong winds failed to materialise.

At a 4pm briefing, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence controller Roger Ball said while there had been no major developments yesterday, the risk remained high.

‘‘Residents of all evacuated areas should expect to be out of their homes for some days to come.’’

He said any donations should be directed to the Mayoral Relief Fund, via the Tasman District Council’s ASB Bank account.

The other official donation channel is the New Zealand Red Cross and a Givealittle page has been set up by NZ Emergency Services Solutions.

All funds would be given to bushfire victims in the Nelson area, the page said, and to the NZ emergency service groups who were helping with the relief and rescue effort. By 9pm, just over $20,500 had been donated.

Fire and Emergency NZ incident controller John Sutton said it had been a ‘‘very productive’’ day.

‘‘We haven’t as yet observed any extreme fire behaviour.’’

It was ‘‘nothing like what we were expecting by this time of the day’’ with winds at about 20kmh with slightly higher gusts.

‘‘The outlook is improving somewhat,’’ he said.

Firefighters implemented a different tactic yesterday with a small controlled burn in the northwest area to deny the fire fuel in a controlled way, he said.

‘‘There’s two things that drive us. One is wind — we are frightened of it — and the other is time,’’ he said.

All of the forestry owners in the area were involved and had been ‘‘generous with help’’.

Some were in the management team, others were helping fight the fire, he said.

Detective Superintendent Peter Read said investigations continued in respect to the Rabbit Island and Iwa Rd fires.

‘‘It’s important to continue complying with any evacuation notices,’’ he said.

Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said it had been a positive day.

‘‘The volunteers are doing an extraordinary job.’’

Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne said he would like to compliment those who had been evacuated for their patience.

Earlier, Mr Sutton said they had a good Saturday night fighting the fire and had established a perimeter around it.

The blaze remains about 2km from Wakefield.

Mr Sutton said two things happened on Saturday night: bulldozer work continued and crews on the ground worked on any area they could identify was burning.

‘‘It was probably the quietest night we have had since we started this incident in terms of fire activity, which was great.’’

They had started rotating some crews out but ‘‘they don’t seem to want to go’’.

Morale was very strong. ‘‘They want to see this through,’’ he said.

A hundred and fifty firefighters were on the ground yesterday, he said, and 23 helicopters were in the air.

Civil Defence earlier announced it had put a ban on certain activities in part of the Nelson Tasman region in order to reduce the fire risk as the large blaze continued to rage.

Controller Rob Smith said those using certain types of outdoor machinery would need to hold off because ‘‘one spark could be enough to cause a fire in these conditions’’.

The directive was issued under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act and prohibited activities, such as harrowing, gas cutting, welding and angle grinding, that could generate sparks or fire.

The announcement came after an estimated 170 households were asked to prepare to evacuate in the Waiiti area, just south of Wakefield, on Saturday night. — NZME