All eight helicopters tackling a raging scrub fire near Twizel have been grounded because of increased winds whipping through the Mackenzie District.
Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) assistant commander Steve Butler says the swirling winds make the fire unpredictable.
“We hit it really hard this morning because weather conditions were in our favour. We had eight helicopters with monsoon buckets and a platform overseeing those operations,” Butler said.
The fire has now covered around 165 hectares and has a perimeter of 17km. He says it is “contained within the fire breaks during the current weather pattern”.
“We’ve got a huge few days of hard work to come but we’re in good spirits. More importantly, there are no injuries so everyone’s being safe and that’s having a big bearing on our tactics to fight this fire,” he said.
Around 16 fire tankers, four-wheel drives and rural appliances have helped in the fight, and around 80 firefighters and 18 helicopter crew remain at the scene.
“It’s proving a very very difficult fire to fight,” Butler said.
As for the cause of the fire, Butler says it is unknown as it has been too unsafe to send out fire investigators.
“We’ve spoken to the person who first noticed it, so we’ve got a pretty good idea of where it possibly started,” he said.
Ash-stained skies loomed over Twizel this morning and tourists at the Visitor’s Centre found themselves covered in smoke and ash.
This morning, Butler told the Herald the helicopters were working in two sectors.
”One sector is focused on protecting residential homes and they are working in conjunction with ground crews to strengthen the fire break in this area,” he said.
“The second sector is at the northern end of the fire and working to protect a plantation in the area.”
Diggers were also operating alongside ground crews to establish or widen fire breaks.
The wind was then pushing the fire back on itself, Butler said, but wind shifts were expected during the day. i
Fenz said six houses on Mt Cook Rd/State Highway 80 were either evacuated with help from police or self-evacuated last night.
No further evacuations are planned - and no property damage has been reported so far, which Butler credited to the lessons learned from the previous large fire at Pukaki Downs.
“The residents of Lake Pukaki have done a wonderful job in learning from previous fires. They have now given themselves great defendable space around their homes by cutting down trees that are close to their buildings and manicuring grass,” he said this afternoon.
“We are really pleased about that and believe that has helped in the fact that we have not lost any properties in this fire.
“There are a few farm buildings we protected last night and some contractor equipment - tractors, dozers that we moved out of the way. So we’re protecting a lot of assets.”
Butler said his crews had found it challenging to drag hoses through the terrain because of a lack of tracks and the changing winds were proving difficult.
“According to the weather gods, we’re in for a hell of a time,” he said.
Fenz was alerted to the blaze at 7.45pm yesterday and 11 crews from Twizel, Mt Cook, Omarama, Burkes Pass and Lake Tekapo responded.
Firefighting operations were limited overnight because of weather conditions, but ramped up as dawn broke.
According to social media posts, the red glow from the fire in the early hours of the morning could be seen from as far as Timaru and Lake Hāwea.
Two ground crews helped monitor the blaze overnight.
The properties involved in the evacuations are a mixture of holiday accommodation and permanent homes, a Pukaki resident told the Herald.
Chris Rudge lives only 6km from the fires and runs an aviation tourism business that frequently flies over the flame-engulfed region.
When he saw fire crews headed up the state highway around 7.45pm yesterday, he assumed another campervan had blown over in the strong winds.
”There were strong gusts south of Twizel, which took out 12 power poles,” he said.
”But then a friend alerted me to the blaze - all I had to do was step outside the office and look up the road, you could see the flames very clearly.”
Rudge said the Pukaki canal, which acts as a “natural fire breaker” separated the blaze from the township.
”Of course, last time the helicopters saved the homes, but I fly over that area on a regular basis and they’ve cleared a lot of trees around the houses,” he said.
”It provides a big buffer, so as long as the grass is short and dry enough there should be a reduced chance of the fires reaching the houses.”
Tracy Gunn, a Twizel community board member, said the local fire service has been “very proactive” at ensuring homes previously affected by fires are better protected.
“[The service] works hard on people living in areas with lots of vegetation and pines around, that they do have adequate fire breaks,” she said.
”Even yesterday, there was something in the local update about being sensible with fires in high winds.”
Gunn said the Mt Cook Lakeside Retreat, which lost a gym in a previous blaze, has reported itself clear of any fire damage.
”They’ll be hugely relieved.”
Now, Gunn said it’s about hoping the weather shifts.
”Mother nature was not a happy camper yesterday with winds, earthquakes and now the fire. Let’s hope she puts something positive out there in rain later today.”
Looking out his lounge window when talking to the Herald, Rudge described a “column of smoke” drifting towards Twizel, but changing direction frequently because of changes in winds.
”It’s still very active, I wouldn’t say it’s stable.”
SH80 remains closed, according to the Waka Kotahi NZTA website, and no detour is available.
Butler says the fire probably won’t be the last this season.
“We’re shaping up for a big fire season so we need people to be vigilant, check on the fires they’ve lit and make sure they’re actually out,” he said.
Herald photographer George Heard said the glow of the fire was visible from some distance away and high winds were contributing to the blaze.
“You can see the flames reaching 5-10 metres up in the air, whipping up pine trees and just destroying everything.
“The wind’s not slowing down here either. There’s a lot, the whole basin is full of smoke.”
Fire officials are asking anyone in the area who feels unsafe to self-evacuate.
Twizel resident Jason Swain said last night that even 15km from the blaze the “sky is alight”.
”We’re on the south end of town, so we’re the furthest away from it,” Swain said.
“You can see a lot of light from it, it’s very windy so it may be fanning the flames in it.
“It might even be getting bigger than the last one, which burned for days.”
Mackenzie District Mayor Anne Munro said the advice is for residents to “follow instructions”.
She said the management of the fire remains with Fenz and “there was no need for council to be involved and to follow instructions from Fenz”.
In August 2020, a blaze in the same location ripped through the area for 12 days.
It swept through 3500ha near Twizel and at its peak, 150 firefighters worked to control it, along with 18 helicopters and two planes.
More than $1 million was spent battling the blaze.
MetService forecaster Paul Ngamanu said a front was bringing heavy rain up the lower South Island today but it was preceded by very strong northwesterlies.
Ngamanu said gusts of up to 140km/h could be expected in exposed areas, while a weather station in more-sheltered Pukaki had measured gusts of around 60km/h.
“I think the main factor of this fire will be those winds because it’s quite a warm northwesterly wind, it’s quite dry, quite warm - [great] for creating fires.”
The wind wasn’t expected to ease off yet but the rain could help, he said. The winds would change direction tomorrow and MetService is predicting snow in the area.
Emergency services were called to the scene about 8.30pm.