Unburnt home seen on Facebook

Alpaca farmer Greg Graham knows his home is safe, but it wasn’t until he came across an aerial shot of Christchurch’s Port Hills fire on Facebook that he knew for sure.

‘‘We saw an aerial photo on Facebook which showed the house and wedding centre intact - it looks okay, a bit of digger-damage but no fire around it.

‘‘I can’t tell if the alpacas are okay. From the aerial view, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be but they could be affected by smoke.’’

It has been very frustrating, Gordon said. There had been no communication from the Fire Service or the Christchurch City Council.

‘‘I can’t even get close the property for a look. The only view is from Sparks Road.’’

Graham said he had contact with some of the fire crew on Tuesday morning, but nothing since. The only people to be in touch were the media.

‘‘I’ve been lucky enough to have a friend who’s doing fire breaks. He saved Kennedys Bush. He’s been able to give me some idea of what’s going on.

‘‘My brother-in-law bumped into a ground crew manager on Thursday morning and he said they had to put out hot spots in the valley before we could go home. It’s sounding more and more like it will be a week until we get home, he said. ‘‘They are letting some people back in but not our valley.

Graham said his alpaca stud of about 30 animals had been moved to a safe location across a creek, then moved again by fire crew at some point on Tuesday evening.

‘‘They are okay. They have half a dozen troughs.’’

Graham said he ‘‘camped out’’ with his family in a paddock on Wednesday night after being evacuated.

‘‘We watched the flames. The waiting was very difficult,’’ he said.

Federated Farmers adverse events manager Katie Milne said she had yet to receive word of stock losses from the fire at this stage.

‘‘The footprint of the fire covers mainly reserve and plantation land.

‘‘Unfortunately, because this land is no longer grazed there has been a build-up of dry grass and debris which has acted as fuel to the fire.

Federated Farmers North Canterbury provincial president Lynda Murchison said some farmers had to move stock from the path of the fire.

‘‘Feds had shepherds and dogs on standby,’’ she said. ‘‘As far as I know one farming family lost a house on their property and had to move stock. As far as Feds know, our sources say there have been no stock losses. It’s been more luck than anything else, that the area of the fire was plantation and lifestyle blocks, not farmland.’’