The Waimarama fires - one year on

Long grass has now grown back at the site where the fire started a year ago behind properties on Waimarama Rd. Photo / Warren Buckland

It was just before 10am on Monday, February 13, last year on a 27C morning when the alarm was sounded that a fire had begun near Waimarama Rd in the Tukituki valley sending emergency services, some of whom had already been battling other blazes in other parts of the district, scrambling.

Declared a "stage five" grass fire, it was rapidly approaching Lake Lopez, and crews from Napier, Hastings, Waimarama, Havelock and Palmerston North rushed to the scene.

Ground firefighter crews were soon joined by multiple helicopters and firefighters from as far away as Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington, and given other fires had broken out and the conditions were hot and windy, a state of emergency was declared that day when by 11am the fire had burnt 50ha of grassland and was still spreading.

Twenty-three residents were evacuated on the Waimarama side, and four houses were directly threatened by the fire that subsequently razed a house.

As the day went on there were concerns the fire was heading north so about 37 residents on Craggy Range Rd from 20 houses were also evacuated.

Heavy machinery was brought in to create fire breaks and by the next day crews were still working to contain the blaze and remained overnight to monitor the situation.

It took until Wednesday afternoon for the state of emergency to be dropped with the three largest fires in Waimarama, Colin White Rd and Ripia Stream all contained, but still being checked for hot spots.

Monitoring continued on Thursday when some much-needed rain gave fire crews some relief, and the national team that had been called in to help was demobilised.

By the next week attention turned to the cause of the blaze, with an external specialist rural fire investigator and electrical engineer employed to investigate.

Negotiations continue

As of last month, however, Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) advised they were still not in a position to release a report conducted on the fire, and that it may not be until much later this year that they would be able to do so.

Responding to an Official Information Act request for information from Hawke's Bay Today, New Zealand Fire Service director in the office of the chief executive, Leigh Deuchars, said no information about the cause of the blaze could be released.

The reason for withholding the document was to avoid prejudice or disadvantage to certain negotiations about costs incurred with the event, she said.

Those included the cost of containing, suppressing and extinguishing the fire.

The Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977 provided a mechanism to recover costs from the person or people responsible for fire outbreaks.

Those costs could be established by a rural fire mediator, through formal legal action or by way of negotiated agreement, she said.

"Providing the Waimarama report in advance of such negotiations would prejudice or disadvantage Fire and Emergency's ability to carry out these negotiations - the report will be available following the conclusion of negotiations."

She apologised for the delay and said that it had been expected that negotiations with third parties would have been completed by now, but due to reasons beyond FENZ's control these negotiations were ongoing.

These things take time

Ken Legat, a Christchurch-based independent fire investigator whose company Fire Investigation Services Ltd specialises in fire origin and cause investigation, said it was not uncommon for such investigations to take a significant period of time to complete.

As well as sometimes taking a lengthy time to determine the cause, potential civil or criminal litigation action may be taken which could cause further delays, he said.

"I am working on a job myself that happened in early 2016 - I know what I think caused the fire, but someone else may come to a different conclusion, and that could end up in court."

If a fire was found to be deliberately lit, it could be subject to a criminal investigation by the police which took time.

If it was found to be accidental, however, civil litigation could be involved.

"If claims are being made this can also slow the whole process down because everything has to be done through lawyers."

At the time of the Waimarama fire there was speculation it could have been caused by arcing power lines, but this was never clear cut, Mr Legat said.

"Fires sometimes start from arcing power lines, but equally an existing fire emitting smoke and heat underneath could cause the lines to spark.

"You have to prove what it was, but in the end you might just have to say you don't know the cause."