Residents work together to save homes
Residents in Nelson’s Teapot Valley had a sleepless night, working together to protect their properties from the fire.
Teapot Valley resident Dorje Strang yesterday said the situation was ‘‘horrible’’. ‘‘It’s like nothing I have ever seen, there were flames 100 metres in the air last night.’’
Strang hadn’t been evacuated, but worked with police and emergency services to remain on his property. ‘‘We’ve got plenty of water stored, I’ve got sprinklers running on the garden from the vineyard irrigation ... just keeping ... livestock safe, all that sort of stuff.’’
On Tuesday night, residents had banded together to help another whose house was in immediate danger, moving possessions and farm machinery to safe ground.
Strang said residents were cutting fire breaks and making sure they had plenty of water. A lot of people had their cars ready to leave if needed.
He estimated there were about 30 houses in the valley, with 40 to 50 people living there.
‘‘It was so hot last night, there are so many residual hotspots and it is still burning across that big front.’’ Strang said he thought Eves Valley had ‘‘copped the brunt of it’’.
The wind changed direction late last night which provided some relief but Strang said that meant someone else was at risk.
‘‘It just devoured the Eves Valley Hill and I feel sorry for those poor people in Eves Valley and Redwood Valley.’’
He said everyone was working ‘‘hard out’’ and people had arrived from out of town to help, but they had a big job in front of them.
‘‘It has been such a dry summer, I sort of thought we would get a fire at some stage, but not of this scale.’’