Fire crew’s last save of the summer

Press, 17 April 1978, Page 2

Fire crew’s last save of the summer

Nelson reporter Fire-fighters of the Forest Service and those in private forests have come through one of the most difficult fire, seasons in the Nelson conservancy for many years without losing as much as half a hectare of pine forest. Now, with several falls of rain, the fire danger has eased and fire crews, on almost constant stand-by, are able to relax.

Probably the last fire the crews have had to deal with over an almost unprecedented dry summer was at Onupua Bay, off Tory Channel, in * the Marlborough Sounds last week.

A farmer burning off on the southern side of a slope suddenly found that, against the wind, the fire had jumped over the brow of the hill and become firmly I

established in a gully on the northern slope.

On both sides of this gully, filled with gorse and broom, are plantations of 11-year-old pine trees covering about 250 ha of hillside. Fire-fighting crews were taken by Alouette helicopter from Nelson and flown to the area about 12.30 p.m. and by late afternoon, with the assistance of a Lama I helicopter and two monsoon buckets, the fire was brought under control. Some of the 15 or 16 men taken to the area finished off the job on the very steep slopes. The work was hampered by very strong winds which gusted to gale force at times. These always seemed to coincide with the arrival [at the beach of Mr Peter [Tait flying the Alouette. At [times the gusts threatened [ to lift the hovering helicopI ter off the mark as the mon-

soon bucket was being filled. He would then have to fly across wind to gain height before setting off up the h : ll with the water-filled bucket trailing below him. There were, too, periodic descents into the water by the shore crew to take the pump a little further into a; receding tide. An old table,, resurrected from a nearby | wool-shed, made an admi-; rable if rickety platform for) the pump. The Nelson fire-protection officer (Mr J. Shaw) said the crews had been called to attend 45 fires during the season and there had been many anxious moments. However, the use of helicopters and the enthusiasm of the men had conquered all fires. A lot of scrub had been lost, but damage to pine forest was negligible.