Port Hills bushfire bill nears $8m

The staggering cost of fighting February’s destructive Port Hills fires in Christchurch is becoming clearer, with the rural firefighting service revealing that its bill totals $7.9 million.

This amount, released yesterday, included $2.1m for aircraft usage and $1.8m for rural fire staff. It is split between the Selwyn District Council (SDC) and the Department of Conservation (DOC).

The total does not include costs incurred by the New Zealand Fire Service – now called Fire and Emergency New Zealand – or Civil Defence expenses from the SDC or Christchurch City Council (CCC).

DOC contributed more than $4.5m to fighting the devastating fires, which covered 1645 hectares and destroyed 11 homes. The organisation’s 130 fully-trained rural firefighters worked more than 11,000 hours during the disaster.

Two separate fires began on February 13 and raged uncontrolled in the southern city’s hills before joining to form one huge blaze. The affected area included much of the then eight-week-old Christchurch Adventure Park.

Hundreds of firefighters battled the inferno from the ground and air. By February 28, the fire was 99 per cent under control. It was declared extinguished on April 20 – more than two months after the incident began.

Douglas Marshall, who acted as Selwyn principal rural fire officer at the time, said he thought it was ‘‘probably the biggest rural fire cost that would have ever been lodged’’.

‘‘The biggest fire Selwyn District Council would have had [before this], it would have been about $250,000 from memory.’’

He said though the bill was high, people should not forget the ‘‘significant cost’’ also paid by affected property owners.

‘‘It’s clearly an extraordinary event in Christchurch and Selwyn life, and like any extraordinary event, it does have an extraordinary cost.’’

While the majority of the costs would be met by insurance, the Rural Fire Fighting Fund, SDC and DOC would each pay an excess of $195,000. There were also nonclaimable costs of about $175,000.

Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton said the cost reflected the significant scale of the firefighting operation.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand did not have available the cost figures for that agency. A spokeswoman said part of the bill would have involved the normal operating costs, as on-duty firefighters and volunteers were a large part of the response.

CCC spokeswoman Mary Richardson said the council had incurred Civil Defence costs of $69,600, and estimated its staffing costs at about $500,000.

‘‘A lot of staff time will not be a direct cost to the ratepayer, as staff did a lot of this work over and above their normal work hours.’’

This work included running the Emergency Operations Centre, coordinating evacuations, assisting with resident access to cordoned areas and communicating with affected residents.

The blazes would cost insurers $18.3m, $10.3m of which was for residential claims.