Kiwis ‘need to know more about blazes’
As four helicopters carrying monsoon buckets flew overhead, Vicki Charles frantically ran around her yard hoping to do anything she could to stop embers igniting her Nelson property.
Charles, a 49-year-old sculptor from Melbourne, was relaxing at home when she received a call from a friend warning her there was a fire burning in forest on Walters Bluff just one kilometre from her home, on Friday afternoon.
Charles looked out her window and saw large flames and huge clouds of smoke billowing from the hillside.
‘‘I looked up and saw all the smoke and there were helicopters starting to dump water on it,’’ she said. ‘‘I ran outside because I knew I had shade cloths, outdoor furniture and there were twigs everywhere.’’
She then went to work frantically clearing the yard of potential items that could fuel the fire and dampening down her property with a hose.
‘‘I was just focused backyard.’’
Charles said the blaze brought back frightening memories of the
on my Black Saturday bush fires in Victoria, Australia – the country’s most deadly bushfire, which killed 173 people in February 2009.
‘‘I just panicked, I saw flames and the fire and lots of smoke and I just got really scared.
‘‘I just had visions of Black Saturday… of all the horrendous stories of people being boiled alive in their dens [sheds] because they were trying to protect themselves.’’
Charles said growing up in Australia and being informed frequently on how to deal with wildfires helped her with preparing for a potential out-of-control fire.
‘‘[In Australia] on TV it’s commercial after commercial telling you to prepare your property,’’ she said.
‘‘Whereas in New Zealand you guys are more focused on earthquake commercials.’’
She said she felt Kiwis could benefit from being better informed on how to prepare their properties and safeguard themselves if a wildfire broke out near their home.
‘‘I just looked out on the street and my neighbours weren’t really doing anything, but for me it was just ‘you have to clean it all up’.’’