No more fiddling while NZ burns

The big issue the Port Hills fire raised, and the one close to Nelson has emphasised, is that of mitigation.

‘New Zealand cannot wait until the next Port Hills-type wildfire event . . . to take more definitive action to reduce wildfire risk.’’ The words are those of Grant Pearce, a senior fire scientist at Crown research institute Scion, in an article in a special edition of the Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, published in December and devoted to the 2017 Port Hills fire in Christchurch.

The second anniversary of the outbreak of that destructive blaze is a few days away, and it seems the urgency of the warnings issued by Pearce and more than a dozen other scientists in a series of articles has just been ramped up at the top of the South Island. There, late yesterday afternoon, a fire at Pigeon Valley, near Nelson, was burning out of control, covering an area greater than that of the destructive 2017 fire. A state of emergency was declared for Nelson-Tasman at 8am yesterday, with houses known to have been destroyed in two separate areas, and more than 170 homes evacuated.

Much of the focus of the special publication is on the danger of wildfires in the ‘‘urban fringe’’ of cities and towns, also referred to as the rural-urban interface (RUI). This is an increasing worldwide phenomenon. Footage of massive fires virtually swallowing up homes in places like California and different parts of Australia has become commonplace.

Pearce, in his article The 2017 Port Hills wildfires – a window into New Zealand’s fire future?, says the RUI ‘‘has been defined as those areas where houses mix or intermingle with potentially flammable vegetation’’. Think lifestyle blocks, smallholdings, and in some cases new subdivisions on the boundaries of urban areas. Homes alongside abundant fuel, especially in scenarios like New Zealand’s this summer, with high rainfall early in the season, followed by a much drier January, creating ideal fire conditions.

Speaking to Stuff after the publication of the journal’s special edition, another Scion scientist, Lisa Langer, mentioned Wellington, Hamilton, New Plymouth and Tauranga as all being at risk. No Nelson, but the current blaze certainly seems to fit the description.

The big issue the Port Hills fire raised, and the one close to Nelson has emphasised, is that of mitigation. With climate change set to increase the number of destructive wildfires, as well as rising sea levels and other climate-related extreme events, a focus is called for on reducing the harm to life and property such fires have the potential to cause.

As Pearce wrote: ‘‘New Zealanders increasingly need to learn to live with wildfire events. The [urban fringe] fire problem is not new, and options for risk mitigation are well known. Action is needed now.’’ The clear implication being that the seriousness of the situation has not been fully recognised, and as a result not enough practical action has been taken.

Also in the special edition, Lincoln University’s Steffan Kraberger, Simon Swaffield and Wendy McWilliam argued for better planning around land use: ‘‘Strong and sustained leadership is needed to implement land use planning that reduces, rather than increases, wildfire risk,’’ they wrote.

Councils will surely have a key role to play in ensuring such planning takes place, and possibly in urging urban fringe homeowners to take protective measures, alongside Fire and Emergency NZ. There is no further time to waste.