Waimarama Rd resident Doug Lowe points in the direction of where the fire started and took off about 50 to 80 metres away from his house. Photo / Warren Buckland
Waimarama Rd resident Doug Lowe points in the direction of where the fire started and took off about 50 to 80 metres away from his house. Photo / Warren Buckland
Waimarama Rd resident Doug Lowe is good at keeping his lawns mowed, and on February 13 last year his efforts were rewarded, helping protect his home from the fast-moving fire that scorched the large area of grassland around him and his neighbours.
Mr Lowe was the first person to call fire services that morning to alert them to the blaze that he said a visitor who was staying with him spotted first.
"She said 'Doug, there's a fire'. I went and had a look and dialled 111.
"I was panicking slightly, the power went off and I was trying to get out there with the hose."
He said he told his visitor to leave but stayed himself to keep an eye on his property, which with his lawns mown to a good distance away from the house he was pretty confident would be safe.
"My place was alright but it was getting pretty close next door and they went straight to that."
He said he was glad the person he spoke to knew where his house, built on the site of an old nursery, was because otherwise it might have taken longer for help to arrive.
From the telephone while he was speaking to them he said he could see that the fire burning about 50 to 80 metres away was going against the wind to the top of the hill across from his house and then coming back round.
"It was a whirlpool of fire around us, I have never seen anything like it, it was a bit crazy."
When fire services arrived he said he stood with them and could see the fire "creeping along the fence".
"I told them they had better get up to the top of the hill as that's where the fire was headed, and then it just took off".
The landscape in the days after the fire. Photo / File
Secure that his house was protected, he said he then settled in for the day.
"There was a long line of helicopters and no one was coming up here because the road was blocked so I opened the fridge up and sat here and took it in."
From his perspective, he said it was hard to tell exactly where the fire started and that there was a lot of speculation that first day about what could have caused it.
Asked if he had any advice for property owners, he said it would be to keep the lawns mowed a good distance from the house, and to not plant trees too close.
"You see it in Australia - I can't understand sometimes that houses are in among all the trees - trees are designed to burn."
