Vigilance urged as fire danger increases in Hawke's Bay
With Hawke's Bay still in an open fire season, firefighters are calling for vigilance after a number of preventable vegetation fires in recent days.
It is the first time in a number of years that the region has gone into the new year without fire restrictions, but that could change within the next week as hot, dry and windy conditions persist, Fire and Emergency New Zealand Hawke's Bay District Manager Ken Cooper says.
"This is quite unique for Hawke's Bay as usually November and December see us in a restricted season but because of the rainfall we had, we're still in open fire season.
"But we're seeing the risk as we've had over 20 vegetation fires in the last 10-15 days."
These have been controlled burns used by landowners to clear land, that have quickly become out of control.
While early notification and a quick response from firefighters has prevented significant damage, Cooper says the main cause of these vegetation fires has been landowners not taking precautions beforehand.
"They have gotten out of control mainly because people have not followed simple guidelines - it's been a windy day with hot dry conditions and they've not had the right equipment for if a fire does get out of control to extinguish it."
Cooper says there have been some "near misses".
"We're trying to get the message through that although we're in an open fire season people need to be very vigilant, check the weather forecast and go to our website checkitsalright.co.nz, but also make sure that they don't leave fires unattended and ensure they are extinguished completely before they leave."
The website advises whether a permit is needed and provides important safety advice and accurate information on what the conditions are like in the local area. They have also recently launched an initiative with MetService that allows people to see the fire season status when checking the weather of a specific area.
The latest vegetation fire, on December 26, was a result of the landowner "not following simple guidelines".
"It is an open fire season but you still have to have a duty of care to the environment and the community and making sure that if you start the fire you have the means to keep it under control and if it does get out of control you've got the means to extinguish it, and not rely on FENZ to come put it out for you.
"Pretty harsh words but we need people to take responsibility because it can have some devastating effects."
The risks currently are Central Hawke's Bay and the south of Hastings.
"What's happened is the rain has obviously caused the grass and vegetation to grow and the recent hot weather and wind have dried it out significantly, so there is a risk and that's why we believe if the weather keeps up like it is for the next few days we will be moving to a restricted season this week."
They use technology and have 26 weather stations around Hawke's Bay which help to advise them on the best time to move between the fire seasons, from open, restricted and prohibited, depending on the risk of wildfires.
"We have a relationship with the Metservice that gives us very accurate long-range weather forecasting so along with these tools we can set an accurate fire season. So we're very close to moving to a restricted fire season I would imagine we would do that next week and that's mainly because of the weather.
