Firefighters prepare for a long, hot El Nino summer

Fire and Emergency NZ has stepped up rural fire initiatives in the wake of El Nino summer weather projections and the charred landscapes from thousands of raging forest fires across the globe.

Planning sessions have been held country-wide, with particular focus on plantation forest vulnerability.

Martinborough chief fire officer Jake Hawkins said that initially, “because the season to date has been so wet,” there was not yet a general concern that the season was going to present a “rough time.” 

“But all predictions are that it is going to be a dry season (and) we in the Wairarapa,  especially Martinborough region, we get a typically dry summer. We’re very prepared for that.” 

“Hopefully in preparation, everyone will be mowing their lawns, mowing their grasses in the countryside.”

The historically low incidence of countryside fires “could possibly change because in the past two years there has been a huge amount of forestry gone in, and they don’t have to maintain their grass around their trees, and the trees are of such a young age that there’s a lot of vegetation which can burn. 

“So if it does get into a forestry block we could be in a bit of strife,” he told The Star.

“These are just freshly planted trees so it (fire) will travel through them very quickly.

FENZ online resources indicate the South has a rating average of eight (8) extra dry fire danger days a year and another five (5) at a heightened risk level.

Hawkins noted that “at a local level we’ve been doing portable pump training which we use in our rural sector, portable dams, making sure all our equipment is up and ready for the upcoming season.

“We’ve gone round (the) local town and cleaned out a lot of the hydrants, making sure they’re working for our urban fires and rural-wise we’ve had a very wet season so all of the dams are full of water and the creeks are running high,” he told The Star. 

“But there’s a lot of vegetation round so if it becomes hot and dry there will be a high fire risk,” he added.

Firefighters are trying to get ahead of the threat, having equipment “like tankers avaiable so that when we get called out … rather than waiting for them (tankers) we have that further water resource for the … turnout.”

There are also resources across the region, where “our rural partners have dams, access to water and all-drive vehicles and then over in Wellington and Palmerston there are crews that will come over and they’re specialising in rural fires, as well as our rural teams and urban teams which are (also) rurally trained.”