People may have trouble escaping a fire at Bottle Lake Forest Park or Godley Head, and Christchurch City Council should consider blocking access to some public parks during periods of extreme risk, a meeting has heard.

On Tuesday, Civil Defence and Emergency Management staff told Christchurch city councillors the El Niño weather pattern could increase the likelihood and severity of extreme heat, drought and wildfire risk in Canterbury.

Civil Defence manager Brenden Winder said some councils had started limiting public access to places like parks during high-risk periods and Christchurch city should consider doing the same.

"It is a big step to make and you need to have it really well thought out about saying, 'This afternoon isn't looking good for people to be recreating in a landscape, but later on in the afternoon is fine'," he said.

"You have to think about how to do that and how you relay that message is quite tricky. It's something we should be considering, given what we are seeing.

"I think it is something we need to mature into as a council to consider how we would close access to areas where people are at risk of escaping a fire."

Awaroa Godley Head. Photo: Supplied / Department of Conservation

Fire and Emergency Canterbury district commander Dave Stackhouse said Godley Head and Bottle Lake Forest Park could be problematic in a fire.

"We have an evacuation plan for [Bottle Lake] as well, but of course, with heavy fire loading driven by the wind conditions we see in Canterbury, [fire] just rips in pretty quick in there and it is hard to for us to contain that, because the amount of heat it generates is unstoppable, until we can get it controlled and pinched down," he said.

Winder said the council had taken steps already, including seven new 30,000-litre tanks and improvements to 12 dipping ponds on the Port Hills that added an estimated 1.9 million litres of water.

"Historically, we've been quite good at responding to separate bespoke events, but we know this is going to be a cumulative event, so we need to think about how we are going to address that," he said.

"El Niño is coming. There is a 90 percent chance that it is going to be the most significant El Niño in over 150 years of recorded history.

"Heat will be a significant factor, drought will be a factor, there will be multiple impacts and complications, but the compounding impacts will be the biggest factor."

On Banks Peninsula, 20 30,000-litre tanks had been added at strategic locations and improvements had been made to two ponds, creating an estimated 1.1 million litres of new capacity.

 

While every El Niño weather pattern was different, FENZ said analysis of five previous El Niño seasons showed the country's east, central North Island and Northland were most likely to see periods of very high fire danger.