Albert Town’s vegetation fire highlights Wānaka’s vulnerability to winter wildfires. The warning comes as an expert highlights increasing risk, saying New Zealand’s response is decades behind that of world-leading countries. Twenty-two homes were evacuated on Saturday night after fire spread quickly through an extended belt of trees and native vegetation. Wildfires are generally associated with hot, dry summer months but Jamie Cowan, a Queenstown-based wildfire management specialist, said the particularities of Central Otago’s climate meant winter represented a peak of wildfire risk. ‘‘It’s quite specific to this end of the country, but particularly in August and September we get these frosts, and that dries out the grass.’’ Mr Cowan said winter wildfires were typically deep-seated, and did not take much to put out, but they could be very fast moving and damaging. ‘‘You might think ‘it’s cold, so we’ll have an outdoor fire, or we’ll burn rubbish in an incinerator’ — but all of these things can catch you out at this time of year,’’ he said. [Missing Credit]Bystanders gather outside to watch a large fire in Albert Town, Wānaka, that forced 22 homes to be evacuated on Saturday evening. Photo: Luke Horrocks Wānaka’s winter peak in wildfire risk would remain heightened until things start to ‘‘green up’’ in October, but from late December into April, the risk would pick up again until the landscape started to get green again in May, Mr Cowan said. The summer peak had potential to significantly increase wildfire risk due to El Nino, he said. Mr Cowan described the role of El Nino in strengthening the foehn effect, where cold wet air hit the West Coast and rose over the Alps, before falling, drying out, and causing hot, dry winds. ‘‘Wind is one of the absolute key factors of how a fire is driven and, as we saw in Wānaka the other night, with reasonably high winds — whatever started that fire, it was able to take off pretty quickly.’’ With heightened risk due to El Nino, Mr Cowan said people should be thinking about risk factors for wildfire. ‘‘People should absolutely be looking at things like what’s flammable around their house, or how close is the vegetation; when am I mowing my lawn or having an outdoor fire or a barbecue.’’ Mr Cowan said councils in Otago were among the leading councils in the country when it came to thinking about wildfire, but that communities needed to avoid complacency as risk increased. ‘‘I do a lot of work overseas, and we’re about 20 years behind the 8-ball; we need to start thinking wildfire,’’ Mr Cowan said. ‘‘No, we’re not Australia, we’re not Canada; we’re not going to see the kind of wildfires they have over there because we don’t have the fuel, but our risk is increasing.’’ Social media played a prominent role in spreading word of the fire at the weekend, raising questions about the response from Queenstown-Lakes District Council, but deputy mayor Quentin Smith said the response was as planned. ‘‘The appropriate services responded; the police were involved in stopping people driving into the area and providing access for the fire services, and the community played a massive part in the emergency response by knocking on doors to alert neighbours. ‘‘Lots of people have said, ‘why wasn’t council leading the communication response?’ and, I mean, it’s just happening too quickly.’’ ‘‘The council’s role is in planning, understanding and managing the hazards proactively and assisting with the recovery. ‘‘We have to rely on Fire and Emergency New Zealand and the police to lead the emergency response.’’ • Fire investigators would like to be emailed by people who were in the area shortly before the fire was reported at 7.28pm. They would also like any photographs or video footage, particularly the half an hour between 7.15pm and 7.45pm at the lagoon end of the reserve south of Lagoon Ave. Email: OtagoDistrictCRM@fireandemergency.nz ruairi.oshea@odt.co.nz
