Lake Ohau blaze gets St Arnaud fired up
A SOUTH Island town surrounded by flammable vegetation is asking its residents to check their fire plans carefully after the devastating blaze that tore through Lake Ohau Alpine Village last year.
It appears other towns are following suit.
The blaze was a serious wakeup call for the rural Nelson Lakes community of St Arnaud, several hundred kilometres north.
The fire at Lake Ohau was one of the country’s worst, destroying nearly 50 properties.
St Arnaud residents believe it could just as easily have been their town going up in flames.
At the annual holiday barbecue held beside the fire station in the town, firefighters explained to residents and crib owners the fire risk and asked them to ‘‘firesmart’’ their properties.
Volunteer fire brigade chief Wattie Mortimer said the Lake Ohau fire brought fire safety to the forefront of their minds again.
They have come up with several measures.
‘‘Firstly, reducing the risk in the village, whether that be ‘firesmarting’, reduction of fuels around people’s houses; the issuing of paint buckets for hot ashes to reduce the risk of fires starting from people disposing of ashes incorrectly.
‘‘And also we took a look at the fire evacuation plan and really realised that there needs to be more focus placed on the individual.’’
Resident fire wardens have also been set up to aid in evacuation if the need arises.
On top of the normal fire risk there is also another issue.
Robbie Thomson is another member of the local fire brigade and was recently appointed as the risk reduction officer.
He said because St Arnaud was on the edge of a national park there had always been the philosophy of ‘‘thou shall not cut down trees’’, allowing highly flammable plants to grow too big.
There are five classes of flammability for native plants in New Zealand and unluckily for St Arnaud, the majority of its vegetation is manuka and kanuka trees — the two species that make up the highest class.
Mr Thomson has been working tirelessly to create what is called a green break, thinning out the flammable plants and allowing the less flammable species to grow.
‘‘Having an area like the fire break where that slows [the fire], it gives you maybe up to half an hour where helicopters would come in and dip from the lake and help us to save the village.
‘‘You’ve in effect reduced the fire by half.’’
And it appears other communities may be following suit.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand incident controller Graeme Still said the 2017 Port Hills fire, the 2019 Nelson fires and the fire at Lake Ohau had been a catalyst for communities to take more precautions and practise fire safety more widely.
In the next 20 years, there would be an increase in the frequency and severity of wildfires, he said.
He welcomes communities doing their bit to reduce the risk.
‘‘For those communities that are looking at what they can do, they just need to contact Fire and Emergency New Zealand and we can point them in the right direction.’’
Mr Mortimer said they especially wanted crib owners to take care while on holiday.