Fire on Māngere Mountain deliberate – Auckland Council maunga authority

By RNZ

Auckland Council’s co-governance and co-management representative says they have been told by fire crews the blaze on Māngere Mountain at the weekend was intentionally lit.

Crews were called to the scene near Domain Rd just before 9.30pm on Saturday, with a second fire on the mountain extinguished on Sunday.

Te Waka Tai-ranga Whenua kaiwhakahaere Joe Hammon told RNZ staff spoke with Fire and Emergency on Sunday.

“They explained it to be intentionally lit from the top centre of the crater,” he said.

“The fire has then spread evenly downwards towards the bottom of the crater, both left and right of the crater, and as you can see in the photos in media, the whole wall of the crater right down to the bottom has been burnt to charcoal.”

However, in a statement on Monday evening, a Fire and Emergency spokesperson refused to confirm either fire was deliberately lit.

A fire investigator was working with police, the spokesperson said.

Fire crews were called to the scene near Domain Rd just before 9.30pm on Saturday. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Hammon said he could feel the sadness of those in the community going up the mountain at the weekend to survey the damage.

“There was iwi members there singing waiata for their sadness, there were people wanting to get closer to express their sorrow.

“Although it was sad, it was really good to see the community come together in those sort of times.”

Resident Malcolm Turner ran the community Facebook page, where many photos of the blaze were posted over the weekend.

He said longer grass on the maunga had increased the risk of fires.

“In terms of fire mitigation, that’s never been an issue until the grass has gotten taller,” Turner said.

“And the grass got taller after the cows got removed, and so what can we do as residents?”

A second fire on the mountain was extinguished on Sunday. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Hammon said cattle were removed from the mountain some time ago to prevent damage.

“It was doing damage to the imprint of the maunga,” he said.

“The governance decided at the time to rid the maunga of cattle, [...] and that’s when fire-breaks were introduced.”

Hammon said 10-metre wide fire-breaks had been mowed around the base of the maunga, protecting neighbouring properties from the spread of fires, and to protect the mountain from property fires also.

“We mow evacuation zones on all of these maunga,” he said.

“Māngere has a big evacuation zone on the maunga, and it’s clearly signaged for people to evacuate if there is a fire ...”

Turner said residents felt vulnerable and unprotected from fires on the mountain.

“It just feels like it’s not on the residents to be careful about fire,” he said.

Turner said there needed to be more communication to residents when changes to the maunga were being made.

“I think that’s where the frustration comes ... we see these things change in such a big way but we don’t hear anything.

“We don’t hear anything, we just see the physical changes and the signs saying, ‘Don’t walk in this part of the mountain,’ but there’s no one here to enforce it.”

Hammon said they had done a lot of work to remove invasive plants and animal pests on the maunga, but managing those starting fires was difficult.

“We’ve got fencing in place, on Māngere there’s fencing, signages everywhere, but what we can’t do is we can’t control certain people, and certain people intentionally lighting these fires which make it extremely difficult, extremely frustrating, and extremely sad for my team who, day in day out, put mahi in to protect these taonga.”

Hammon urged anyone who saw others not adhering to fire restrictions on the maunga to call police.

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