It will be a “black Christmas” for the devastated owners of a citrus tree nursery after fire ripped through their orchard, causing more than $300,000 in damage.
The blaze extensively damaged large shelter belts, and burnt or severely damaged rootstocks on Grant and Sharon Tennet’s 5ha Bay of Plenty property.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand said a non-suspicious fire that got out of control on Snodgrass Rd, Te Puna, on November 20 quickly spread to other properties because of “very unique” westerly winds.
Up to 10 properties were evacuated, and between 40 and 60 firefighters from across Tauranga, the wider Bay of Plenty and Matamata responded.
The Tennets own one of the affected properties where they grow about 60,000 citrus trees a year to supply the national retail market.
They are still calculating the fire’s cost to them.
Grant Tennet said a large shelter belt went through their orchard and the bottom of one side was “burnt through”.
About 300m of a barberry hedge shelterbelt shared with a neighbouring orchard was “entirely burnt” on their property’s southern side.
Internal shelterbelts running north to south were burned and up to 100m of Japanese cedar hedge was also severely burnt and will have to be cut out.
“These shelter belt hedges could be 25-30 feet (7.6-9.1m) high and replacing the burnt sections will cost a lot of money,” he said.
“I was talking to my neighbour about costings and we might be talking about in excess of $300,000.”
Tennet said the orchard also lost a lot of rootstocks, which would have been ready for grafting in December. All the plants at the top end by the barberry hedge got severely burnt and others were badly scorched or singed.
The fire affected three to four blocks of rootstock citrus tree plants, and he estimated they lost at least several hundred of those.
“I estimate that about a quarter of our source of rootstocks had been severely burnt and I don’t think they are going to recover.”
The aftermath was daunting because they had to assess the extent of the damage and losses but also had a “massive clean-up” ahead.
“Some of the rootstocks were smothered in golfball-sized fruit, and we were due to harvest the fruit in March or April. This is when we also extract all our seeds.
“Due to some of those parent trees being severely burnt, we may be short on seed for next season,” Tennet said.
“Those seeds are the main source of our business. If you haven’t got the seed, you haven’t got a business.
“If we don’t have enough seed next season and have to import some from Australia or America, it’s so expensive, it’s like importing gold.”
This would affect the business later as the citrus trees come on at different stages.
“With the rootstocks, you are looking at harvesting them in about 18 months, that’s when we are going to be short on rootstock and possibly also seeds.”
The Tennets were in Mount Maunganui when their daughter called them about the fire.
“When we rushed home we only got as far as the police cordon on the top of Armstrong Rd and Snodgrass Rd and spent the next few hours sitting in our car, watching the fire trucks and water tankers going in and out of the area.“
Their 27-year-old son William, who helps run the business, his best friend and their staff stayed at the property to help protect it.
“William told us he noticed lots of smoke at first, then realised the whole back of the hedge bordering our neighbour’s orchard was burning. Because it was very windy, embers were jumping from the shelter belts and heading towards our home, the fire quickly spread to a neighbour’s orchard.”
Sharon Tennet said William refused to leave the property.
He, his friend and their staff rushed around with buckets of water and scrambled to get a hose connected to dampen down embers that reached their front door.
“William was determined to save the family home and as much of the nursery property as possible and he did not sleep the whole night, and almost succumbed to the smoke twice. He is my hero,” she said.
Grant Tennet said when he and his wife returned to the property the next day they were devastated to see the damage.
“One of our neighbours, who saw the fire unfolding, told us when one of the shelter belts ignited the flames were about four times higher than the belt and ripped through the property very fast,“ he said.
The Tennets wanted to thank everyone who worked hard to minimise the damage and losses.
“It’s going to be a black Christmas. But at the end of the day, we were really lucky, it could have been so much worse.
“None of our outbuildings and implement sheds containing fertiliser, forklifts, tractors and sprayers, and our home were affected. And no one was hurt, which is great.”
Sharon Tennet said they had worked hard planting the trees and running the place, and “it’s been devastating for me”.
“It’s so sad because Christmas is coming and suddenly we have this. It’s unbelievable.”
She said the “wonderful firefighters” spent hours at the property on Wednesday and through to the early hours of Thursday morning.
“We want to say a huge thank you to all the firemen who did a great job, and to all the other service people who came here to help us, including the police. We are just so appreciative to all of them, they’re all heroes.”
Taupō Volunteer Fire Brigade member Roger Nelson, who is also a Fire and Emergency NZ risk reduction adviser and vegetation fire investigator, said he was still gathering evidence and police were also investigating the fire.
He said wind gusts were between 35km/h and 60km/h on the day.
Shelterbelts used in many rural properties across Tauranga were made up of Japanese cedar and these contained volatile fractions known as terpenes in their sap.
This meant the sap was “extremely flammable” if the shelter belt caught fire.
”Orchardists ... tend to burn piles of vegetation from time to time and the risks of fires spreading to nearby trees, plants and structures was something people needed to consider before lighting any fire.”
Nelson said anyone wanting to light a fire must plan three to five days by assessing the weather forecast and humidity levels and checking the fire risk rating on the Fire and Emergency NZ website.
Measures to minimise the risk of the fire getting out of control were crucial.
It is open fire season in the Bay of Plenty meaning permits to light a fire are not required but that can quickly change. He urged people to be “extremely cautious” before lighting a fire with summer about to start.
Sandra Conchie is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 24 years. She mainly covers police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional/community reporter of the year.
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