Call to future-proof Hawke's Bay region from disasters

Hawke's Bay Principal Rural Fire Officer Trevor Mitchell says a lack of strong winds has been the "big difference" between this summer and last. Photo / Duncan Brown

While bursts of rain may have saved this summer from being marred by spates of fires, action is being called to "build some resilience" for future disasters.

The combination of tinder dry conditions and strong winds last summer led to large grass fires springing up around Hawke's Bay, pushing firefighting resources to the limit.

Another dangerous summer looked to be on the cards for Hawke's Bay, with only 12ml of rain falling during November, leaving parched conditions around the region, followed by typical hot weather during December and January.

Luckily there was a "big difference" between this summer and last, Hawke's Bay principal rural fire officer Trevor Mitchell said.

"It's not windy and we've had all of those thunderstorms which have gone around the district over the last few weeks. They have been very, helpful, especially for our rural areas through the back country towards the ranges."

These storms – which dropped nearly half of January's total rainfall in two days – helped dampen down areas around the district.

This has been noted in the rural community - last summer Central Hawke's Bay farmer Steve Wyn-Harris said in his 33 years of farming, he had never been more alarmed at the risk of fire, with wind blowing over 100km/h, and temperatures rising over 30C.

"We've been spared this year," he said. "We've been very fortunate, it could have gone either way."

In all, Mr Mitchell said fire services had a "very good summer".

The fire risk had been high all through summer, but at the end of the week Mr Mitchell said this would be raised to "very high, to extreme in the dry areas" with Cyclone Fehi expected to batter the region with strong winds.

"We're very lucky people in Hawke's Bay are generally well aware of the fire risk during summer which is very, very good for us."

Mowers, and crop harvesters had been the cause of the more significant fires this summer. On Tuesday fire services spent four hours battling a "reasonably large" grass fire in Porangahau believed to have been caused by a mower cutting thistles.

Mr Mitchell urged people to be careful and only use such machinery early in the morning or late in the day.

As well as being careful this summer, Mr Wyn-Harris urged action needed to be taken to future-proof water supplies to ensure emergency services had easy access to large amounts of water should disaster strike.

"It doesn't take much of a spark before things can go up when the conditions are right, it's deadly. We need to build some resilience."

Most farmers had some emergency plan, or water source in case of fire. However, with the effects of climate change this might not be enough in future.

And should a disaster such as an earthquake strike, the usual ways of gathering water could be hampered.

He thought a solution could be storing rainfall water so it could be released into rivers during the drier months to raise levels.

"We've taken water for granted. Rural communities, we've always dealt with water being an issue, we're always having to keep an eye on it. Urban people are used to just turning a tap on and having water.

"We had an opportunity and I think we squandered it. We are going to have to fix this."