Baby fire was already monster

The man first on the scene of the destructive Nelson bush fire says it was ‘‘mind blowing’’ watching the fire rip through the countryside within seconds of igniting. Hydraulic technician Joel Scott was heading home from a day working in the bush when he came across ‘‘puffs of blue smoke’’ billowing from a paddock in the bone-dry Pigeon Valley, about 30km south of Nelson. Scott got out of his car and ran towards a tractor driver, who was using machinery on the field. ‘‘At first I just thought that potentially someone had lit a bonfire or a small burn off or something. I was actually going over there to give the guy a mouth full, but I soon realised when I got out of the vehicle it was not lit on purpose.’’ The tractor driver, a local contractor working on land leased by farmer Ian Parkes, was very confused and flustered, he said. ‘‘I asked him if he had called emergency services but he had no reception,’’ Scott said. At about 2.13pm, Scott phoned 111 and took the first photo of the fire. He then quickly ran around the property opening farm gates so fire crews could easily get to the blaze. Within about 30 seconds of contacting emergency services, the fire, which was being aided by strong gusts of wind, quickly burned its way up the nearby hillside. ‘‘I knew within the first two minutes it was out of control . . . the wind was blowing about 20 kilometres an hour and it just hooked up the ridge line. ‘‘I called 111 back a second time and knew at that stage the ground appliances couldn’t really do anything. I said, ‘get the helicopters here and quickly’.’’