Burning start to summer a taste of what’s to come – Editorial

Editorial

Summer has well and truly arrived and Kiwis across the country are basking in the glow of glorious sunshine.

But warmer, drier days also bring a more arid Aotearoa and a dry landscape at risk from seasonal fires.

On Monday, fire crews were battling four major blazes in Canterbury alone:

• A massive vegetation fire in high country that started burning at Bridge Hill last Thursday grew to more than 1000ha.
• A fire in West Melton that began on Sunday engulfed more than 130ha before being brought under control.
• Two houses and a school were at risk from a fire at Waihao Downs (close to the Otago border).
• A scrub fire sparked up close to Kirwee – near where a blaze tore through 80ha of farmland, forestry, and riverbed vegetation last summer.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has already put many parts of the country– including the Hauraki Gulf, Bay of Plenty, Nelson-Marlborough, Otago – under seasonal fire rules and tightened restrictions further in Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa.

The same authorities also warned of “extreme fire risk” in parts of the country less than a week into summer.

Firefighters at one of several driftwood and debris fires on the Napier and Awatoto seafront last week, when temperatures soared close to 34C. Photo / Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Wildfire manager Tim Mitchell said fires in Canterbury and Otago “paint a grim picture of what we will see in the drier parts of the country if people don’t take care with fires or spark-making activity”.

“We always advise people to go to checkitsalright.nz before lighting a fire, but in the current climate, we’re actually just appealing to New Zealanders to hold off lighting fires at all if they possibly can.”

Rural New Zealanders will likely be far more familiar with fire risks than their urban counterparts but fire safety and education is going to become increasingly important.

That’s because, according to climate scientists, wildfires are likely to loom over our summer months as the world warms.

Fire and Emergency Services on the scene of the Bridge Hill wildfire, December 5. Photo / Fire and Emergency New Zealand

“It is clear New Zealand stands at a pivotal juncture. The country faces an increasingly severe wildfire climate. And our once relatively ‘safe’ regions are now under threat. At all levels of government, New Zealand needs to consider whether our current investment to combat fires will be enough in the coming decades,” Nathanael Melia, the founding director of Climate Prescience, said earlier this year.

“Our research integrating detailed climate simulations with daily observations reveals a stark forecast: an uptick in both the frequency and intensity of wildfires, particularly in the inland areas of the South Island.

“It is time to consider what this will mean for Fire and Emergency New Zealand, and how a strategic calibration of resources, tactics and technologies will help New Zealand confront this emerging threat.”

In the meantime, New Zealanders should be wise to the fire danger in their area to avoid more weeks like the one that struck Canterbury.