Canoe crew to the rescue
An outrigger canoe training session turned into a rescue mission at Port Taranaki on Thursday night last week when a digger fire engulfed the crew of a Hawaiian sailing waka in smoke.
Mary Brewster was in a waka with six others from the Taranaki Outrigger canoe club off Ngāmotu beach in New Plymouth when they noticed darkening smoke and flames coming from the boat ramp threatening another waka, the Ngāhiraka Mai Tawhiti.
‘‘Somebody called out to us from the waka and said could we take the children off the waka because there was quite a lot of smoke around.’’
Brewster said her crew backed up their waka next to the boat, which was tied to the jetty, and rescued three adults and a child, paddling them back to Ngāmotu beach.
‘‘We bought them back to the beach to keep them safe, away from the smoke,’’ Brewster said.
‘‘I think we just did what anyone would do. That you go to render assistance really.’’ Brewster said she noticed the smoke around 4:45pm on Thursday evening and when they paddled over a digger was in flames and thick smoke covered the area.
‘‘It was severely significant smoke, and it got blacker. Then we could actually see flames, so we knew it was quite a big fire.
She said there was one fire truck at the scene extinguishing the fire and using a marine boom to absorb the diesel in the water.
In a written statement, Port Taranaki chief executive Simon Craddock said the digger was near the water’s edge working to remove sand build-up at the lee breakwater boat ramp.
‘‘Some oil was spilt from the digger during the fire and was quickly contained by our response team,’’ Craddock said.
The cause of the fire was unknown, and an investigation has been carried out.
The driver of the digger was not injured and was able to get out just in time however the digger was badly damaged and has been removed from the site.
The boat ramp is open for use.