Southland firefighters are concerned a fire that's been devastating conservation land could flare up and spread with more windy, dry conditions on the way.
Firefighters working on the smouldering peat wetlands at Awarua Bay in efforts to put out the fire that has scorched conservation land south of Invercargill. Photo: Supplied/ Andrew Eastwood
The fire at Awarua started on 2 April and has burned through more than 1300 hectares of internationally and culturally significant wetlands.
Minister of Conservation Kiri Allan visited the fire grounds on Monday, describing the damage as absolutely gutting.
A short drive south of Invercargill along a grey gravel road edged with flax and with Awarua Bay mere metres away, firefighters have been trying to get a large fire under control.
It has taken hold in the Awarua and Waituna Wetlands.
DOC's Andrew Eastwood was among the firefighters, and took photos while he was at work at Awarua Bay. Photo: Supplied/ Andrew Eastwood
Firefighters have to be ferried to the fire grounds by helicopter - it is only accessible by air.
Allan did a flyover on Monday morning.
"You can see in particular areas there's still a lot steam and heat emanating from those areas, and in other areas, you can just see she's been scorched right down to the base."
It was not just the loss of flora and fauna that was a bitter pill to swallow - the wetlands also stored greenhouse gases.
"That is huge amounts of carbon that's just been released into the environment."
She was heartened to see patches of untouched land and more birds than she expected.
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan visited the Awarua Bay fire today. Photo: RNZ/ Tess Brunton
It has been a hard slog for firefighters.
"They're out there literally digging the roots of these burning wetland areas. That's incredibly hot.
"I've just heard that one of the areas out there was 500 metres by 100 metres, burning at about 300 degrees, so she's hot work. It's grubby work.
"One of the guys I spoke to earlier today, he made it about a kilometre and a half through burning mānuka and that was his whole day's work, and it was just a struggle to get from place A to place B."
She did not rule out government support, but did not commit any funds during her visit.
Firefighters have to be ferried out to the Awarua Bay fire by helicopter. Photo: RNZ/ Tess Brunton
Dean Whaanga, Kaiwhakahaere for Awarua Rūnaka, remembered spending time at the wetlands as a kid.
"Me and my father and family, we used to come out here."
He was relieved the nearby burial grounds for tīpuna appeared to have escaped the fire, but said they still did not know the extent of the damage.
Conditions haven't been kind since the fire started 10 days ago, with strong winds grounding helicopters and the drought creating tinder dry conditions.
Rain was forecast overnight.
Incident Controller Julian Tohiariki said more dry and windy conditions were expected, with concerns the currently contained fire could rear its head again.
"Any rain at this stage is always helpful of course. But it would take at least 100 millimetres of rain for us to rehydrate the grounds to where it would normally be at this time of the year.
"The dry summer has definitely knocked the ground around out here. Even though it looks green, underneath the ground it's not the story at all."
Helicopters are being used heavily to help fight the fire. Photo: RNZ/Tess Brunton
Wetlands - in particular peatlands - pose a challenge for fighting fires, and the ground could keep smouldering for weeks, if not months.
"Although we extinguish everything we can get our hands on and you can see, a week, couple of weeks later or even months later, they can pop out of the ground as it burns underneath the ground through the peat," Tohiariki said.
"So very challenging fire conditions to fight. Extinguishing is one thing, but actually controlling the fire to be completely extinguished is another thing.
"We're very concerned about that moving forward."
He estimated the firefighting bill was about $800,000 but that could increase.
An investigation into the fire is underway.
