School head wants hillside to be cleared

Logan Park High School principal Jane Johnson says it may only be a matter of time before a change in the wind direction during a fire on Signal Hill could set her school ablaze.

Mrs Johnson said the school was not damaged during Tuesday's fire on the hillside, but given there had previously been a fire on the hill in 2006 and another in the 1990s, she said it was time to consider clearing the entire hillside of scrub and trees to protect the school from potentially being destroyed by fire.

A lot of work had been done on the hillside since the last fire in 2006, she said.

Large amounts of gorse and scrub had been removed, fire breaks had been put in and the Ministry of Education had spent about $1 million stabilising the hillside above the school's science block in a bid to protect it from landslips.

But, after seeing how close the fire got to the school yesterday, she said it was time to look at ''fuller solutions''.

''You could see in the photos in the ODT, the caretaker's house on that hillside. You can see the trees burning behind it.

''A change of wind direction could send the flames through the school. It doesn't make you feel very easy about the whole setup.''

She believed it was time to shift the pine trees growing on the ''immediate'' hillside.

''There are a lot of pines there. The overall environment, I would say we need to pay a lot more attention to it.

''Certainly, we've had three fires and we don't know how two of them started. It could be glass or anything.

''For safety reasons, we need to pay more attention to it and have a look at the tree planting and what we can do about it.

''We are working on some things, but it's time to consider a fuller solution [removal of trees] to that hillside.''

Dunedin City Council recreation planning and facilities manager Jendi Paterson acknowledged Mrs Johnson's concerns.

''We would be very keen to engage with the school, the Fire Service and other affected parties early in the new year, to look at future management of the reserve from their perspective.''

john.lewis@odt.co.nz