How awful was it to watch beautiful parts of the Bay go up in flames yesterday?
There was something about the day that did not feel right from the early morning. Even at 8.15, the car's temperature gauge had an outside reading of 30 degrees. As the morning progressed, thewind got wilder and then the news came....the hills along Waimarama were in flames and houses threatened.
Unfortunately for one poor family their house did not make it and despite the valiant efforts of fire crews it succumbed to the flames.
The problem is that, to use a common phrase, it was a perfect storm of conditions. The countryside, which we called exhausted in one of our stories, is so dry that there is simply no moisture to repel any flames. Add to that the high temperatures and very strong, gale-force winds (enough to blow a trampoline into a paddock next to my rural home) and it was a recipe for disaster.
For weeks and weeks our councils and fire services have been warning us to watch out for fires and it has been terrible to hear almost on a daily basis of fires starting up. Many of them have been scrub fires that did not threaten any property, but yesterday's Waimarama Rd one stepped things up a notch.
A state of emergency was declared by the Hastings District Council and Hawke's Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group yesterday afternoon, which was absolutely the right thing to do.
I reckon the criticism of the council's response time to last year's gastro crisis was still ringing in Mayor Lawrence Yule's ears as he made the announcement.
It now means our brave fire crews can get help and national resources can be brought in if needed.
