Two fires in three days
Canterbury fire authorities are urging vigilance after two major Canterbury scrub fires in three days tore through homes, sheds and 100 hectares of farmland.
Though light rain was forecast for Boxing Day, hot weather and dry conditions would persist.
‘‘We all know that in these conditions it doesn’t take much of a spark to set off a fire and once you’ve got a wind behind it, it can travel pretty quick,’’ Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) assistant area commander Steve Kennedy said.
Yesterday, Sam Layton was sitting down for Christmas Day lunch at his daughter’s home when he got a call to say a fire was approaching his Hororata house, about 60 kilometres west of Christchurch.
He went home to find the fire had destroyed three sheds, a few trailers and a pile of dry wood.
The blaze started on the corner of Substation and Bealey roads about 1pm. It burned through about 100 hectares of paddocks in 31C heat, crossing Derretts Rd and approaching Haldon Rd.
It threatened homes – one was saved by helicopters dropping monsoon buckets of water – and destroyed a shed and several farm outbuildings. Five helicopters, 15 fire engines and several tankers fought the blaze at its height.
Up to 10 properties along Derrets and Haldon roads, in Hororata, were evacuated. Extended families gathered for Christmas grabbed what they could and fled.
FENZ regional rural manager Richard McNamara said winds up to 40kmh caused ‘‘spotting’’, with sparks blown ‘‘300 to 400 metres’’ downwind. Firefighters got the fire contained about 4.30pm.
It was likely they would work through the night to dampen down hot spots.
‘‘The southerly [wind] will come through and that’s unlikely to have a lot of moisture. If that comes through, it could threaten the very dry barley fields to the northwest,’’ he said.
Layton, whose leg was amputated after a logging accident near Lake Coleridge 17 years ago, said the hardest part was the loss of his tractor, which he relied on to get around his lifestyle block.
His house was one of the closest to where the fire started. Further down Bealey Rd, a row of scorched trees smouldered metres behind a house firefighters saved.
The fire was ‘‘one of those things, can’t do anything about it’’, Layton said.
The blaze came two days after a large grass fire in Rolleston destroyed retired couple Hamish and Belinda Ensor’s Knights Rd home, hit several other houses, including that owned by Daryl and Salve Cross, and ruined sheds, workshops and outbuildings.
As the Saturday fire got close, the Ensors put their two grandchildren in the car and drove through smoke to escape. Paul Ensor, who spent Christmas Eve digging through the ashes, said his parents ‘‘lost everything’’.
Sergeant Grant Stewart said the Selwyn District Council was prepared to open an evacuation centre for those affected by the Christmas Day Hororata blaze.
About 6pm on Saturday, four helicopters were sent to a sawdust fire on Haul Rd, near McLeans Island. That fire, about 100m in size, did not threaten properties.
‘‘We all know that in these conditions it doesn’t take much of a spark to set off a fire and once you’ve got a wind behind it, it can travel pretty quick.’’