A CLASSIC ESCAPE
As the flames and smoke billowed above the hills opposite her home, Rebecca Jacobsen knew it wouldn’t be too long before she would have to leave.
When the text came, late one Thursday afternoon, it was, she recalls, “chaos”. Rebecca (39) and her sister Brittany (30) were among the first of the Wakefield residents to be evacuated as Pigeon Valley burned.
As they began packing suitcases with clothes, jewellery, passports and any other important documents they could get their hands on, Brittany’s two children Paige (7) and Jeydin (3) grabbed armfuls of their favourite toys. Brittany’s partner, 36-year-old James Rees, had already left and was helping battle the blaze alongside other local volunteer firefighters.
Also left to organise was three pedigree dogs, German Shepherds Ash and Axel, and Bentley, a six-month-old St Bernard; a trio of cats;
Sweet-he, the rabbit; and Rebecca’s pride and joy – her shiny red 1964
Mk1 Cortina, which
(along with another classic car, a ’62 Ford
Anglia) Rebecca, her dad and James had all had a hand in restoring over a number of years.
The cats and Sweet-he were looked after at an animal shelter set up by the vet, the kids camped for the first few days at
Rebecca’s brother Chris’ place in the Brook, while Rebecca and Brittany stayed in Tahunanui with
James’ parents.
Chris (42) was also responsible for one of the dogs and for getting the Cortina to safety.
“It was a mad rush really,” tells Rebecca.
“It was one of those, ‘Okay, what do we take?’ moments. The kids were filling up the back of the ute with their toys and I was trying to decide how I could get the cars out. In the end, I got Chris to take the most valuable one because it would be hard to replace and I left the Anglia there.”
The family were allowed to return home on the afternoon of February 11, with the proviso that if the fire flared up at any stage over the next seven days they would have to leave again.
Says Rebecca: “We’ve left quite a lot of our stuff at Tahunanui, just until we’re sure this is over. We don’t want to have to pack and run again.
“Listening to the helicopters
that are still up there with their monsoon buckets, and seeing police and the Red Cross, who were around door-knocking to make sure people were okay, is sort of surreal. It’s one of those things you expect to see somewhere else, not in your own little backyard.”