Ron Middleton in his pink fire retardant splashed SUV. Photo/Warren Buckland
Ron Middleton in his pink fire retardant splashed SUV. Photo/Warren Buckland
Silviculturist Ron Middleton was anything but silver as he continued the Tangoio forests firefight.
It was a change of colour for the unshakeable forest contractor, who along with his vehicle was sprayed pink as an aircraft dropped its load of Firetrol fire retardant in the heart of the fires lateon Tuesday morning.
"It's the new colour'' he said later as he waited between shifts ferrying his gangs into the area, forest workers fully-trained as forest firefighters.
The good news, he reckoned, was that he wouldn't get hit again, the dye colouring him almost head-to-toe and the runabout from the roof to the tread on the road meant to show where the strikes had already been made.
Two fixed-winged aircraft were being used to drop the retardant, while eight helicopters with monsoon buckets were involved in fighting the fire from the air, with water scooped from dams in-turn refilled from a fleet of tankers.
By midday, more than 25 hours after the fire was reported at 11.43am on Monday, up to 70 firefighters were involved, most having only minimum sleep.
An aircraft drops Firetrol retardant across the forest at Tangoio. Photo/Warren Buckland
One Hastings firefighter said he'd got arrived home at midnight on Monday and was back up at 4am to rejoin the battle soon after daybreak, manning one of the tankers pumping water into a dam beside a rise off Tangoio Settlement Rd.
At the command base, supported by a national incident control centre "in town", deputy principal rural fire officer Gordon Foster, of Hastings, said late morning that while there were still 70 involved in fighting the fire "it's definitely a lot quieter than it was (Monday).
Operations commander Gordon Foster at the command centre off Tangoio Settlement Rd. Photo / Warren Buckland
The firefighters included Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff, volunteers from Bay View, Te Pohue and other brigades and rural fire forces, from as far afield as Palmerston North, with tankers from brigade and rural fire sources, and a carrier more normally used on the road to carry water for tanks at the beach.
"We've got it under control," he said.
As midday passed, crews started arriving at a staging point canteen, where Susan Campbell, described by one helper as "the cook" said 70 people were being fed, group by group ferried from the fire fronts.
Having fed about 70 the previous night the canteen had been initially told to expect about 35 during Tuesday. The increase in numbers sent her back too town. Kevin Thomsen, one of seven volunteers mainly absenting themselves from their day jobs to help, said: "Sue went to the supermarket this morning."
