Homeowners await news of their homes, and pets
Evacuees left in the dark as bush blaze marches on, by Virginia Fallon.
Jon Gordon sat on the roof and watched the flames get closer.
It was Thursday night, and already the Nelson fire had burned for three days; now the hills behind his land were glowing, and embers fell like rain.
While his three young sons slept, Gordon kept watch over the family’s Wakefield property, and his wife Pam packed bags ready to evacuate the ‘‘dream home’’ they had moved into less than three months ago.
Yesterday, day five of the fire, Gordon and wife Pam were among the hundreds gathered at a church in the village of Hope, 20 minutes from Nelson city. In the church, tables groaned with homebaking, cups of tea were poured, and children played outside. At least five people brought their dogs inside; a dozen more waited in cars and utes. A cat cage sat under a shady tree, its resident tabby unperturbed.
Up to 3000 people were evacuated from the areas around the fire that began on Tuesday and has burned out of control since. Wakefield has been closed to anyone other than emergency workers. Many of the Wakefield residents had been escorted from their homes by police and others had left on their own.
They came to hear the officials talk about the fire threatening their homes, businesses and animals. They had come to hear when they might go home, but nobody had an answer.
The Gordons sat in the front row, holding hands. Pam said three cops had turned up to their property on Friday to move the family out.
‘‘We (were) warned the night before, but it was still a shock. I was calmer being in the house waiting for the fire than now.’’
The property was the couple’s first home, a place for their three young boys to settle, and her husband’s mother had moved into a flat behind the house.
‘‘There’s nothing we can do now other than hope. We’re safe, and the pets are safe, that’s something at least.’’
Three rows back, Jenny Downey was worried about her chicken. The grandmother of 22 was evacuated on Friday; she had just enough time to pack a small bag but not long enough to find her pet hen. ‘‘Pecker’s all by herself looking after the place; I’m worried sick about her.’’
By the time Downey left, there was a fine layer of ash on the kitchen bench, and the house had filled with smoke. ‘‘My son told me to have the car turned around in the garage and pointing the right way, but I got a cramp and couldn’t drive. The police had to drive me out.’’
She forgot her toothpaste and was thrilled when she met Civil Defence Minister Kris Faafoi just before the meeting. He gave her some toothpaste, and she gave him a tip: ‘‘You should remind people to bring their toothpaste; they need to know that.’’
‘There’s nothing we can do now other than hope. We’re safe, and the pets are safe, that’s something at least.’ Pam Gordon
At the back of the meeting, as her mum listened to the talk, 9-year-old Dereon Kelly said she lived outside the cordon, but family members were affected. ‘‘I don’t want anyone to have their house burn up; it would be the saddest thing.’’
Outside the church, a group of angry men drank tea and talked about their livestock left back in the cordon. They wanted to go back to their animals but were not allowed. ‘‘I’m too angry to go stand in there and listen when all I need is half an hour at my
house,’’ one man said. ‘‘You wouldn’t be able to print what I really have to say.’’
After the meeting, former neighbours Chris Payn and Daryl Taylor drove to the Wakefield cordon and joined the line of cars waiting to be escorted through
the village. They hoped they could be escorted to their houses to pick up necessities. Payn needed work clothes and to find the cat, Taylor needed medication and his family’s four rabbits: ‘‘I don’t know what their names are; you’ll have to ask the wife.’’
At the very edge of the cordon, Marion Brooks kept an eye on things. ‘‘I sat here on my walker the other night and watched the flames; it was quite something.’’
She said she was used to weather events and wasn’t worried about her property.