Unison may face court over fires
Hawke’s Bay lines company Unison Networks is facing potential legal action over wildfires that swept across the Waimarama hills, sparking a state of emergency, in February last year.
The blaze broke out on February 13 and spread quickly, prompting a three-day state of emergency for the Hastings District and drawing significant firefighting resources.
While there has been speculation the fire was caused by arcing power lines, repeated attempts to obtain a rural fire report on the blaze have been declined by Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ).
Unison relationship manager Danny Gough yesterday confirmed to Hawke’s Bay Today the lines company was facing potential legal action from FENZ.
“Fire and Emergency allege that Unison is liable to it for a significant loss. Unison denies it is liable.
“However, as it is possible that Fire and Emergency will file legal proceedings against Unison, it is inappropriate for Unison to comment further on the fire at this time,” Mr Gough said.
As recently as January, FENZ advised it was still not in a position to release the fire report, and that it would be much later in the year that it would be able to do so.
Responding to an Official Information Act request for the rural fire report last year, FENZ director in the office of the chief executive, Leigh Deuchars, said no information about the blaze could be released. The reason for withholding the document was to avoid prejudice or disadvantage negotiations about costs incurred with the event, she said. Those included the cost of containing, suppressing or extinguishing the fire.
The Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977 provided a mechanism to recover costs from the person or people responsible for fire outbreaks.
Those costs could be established by a rural fire mediator through formal legal action or by way of negotiated agreement, Ms Deuchars said.
“Providing the Waimarama report in advance of such negotiations would prejudice or disadvantage Fire and Emergency’s ability to carry out these negotiations.
“The report will be available following the conclusion of negotiations.”
The alarm first sounded on a 27C morning on Monday, February 13, last year.
The fire began near Waimarama Rd in the Tukituki valley, sending emergency services, some of whom had already been battling other blazes in Hawke’s Bay’s dry landscape, scrambling.
By 11am the fire had burned 50ha of grassland and a state of emergency was called, given numerous other fires had broken out and conditions were hot and windy.
Residents were evacuated as multiple helicopters and firefighters from as far away as Auckland were called in to fight the blaze.
By Thursday, February 16, heavy rain assisted their efforts to contain the fire but not before 162ha of countryside was left blackened and one house burned to the ground.
Waimarama Rd resident Doug Lowe, who was first to spot the fire and dial 111, previously speculated that arcing powerlines had caused the blaze.
However, at that time, Mr Gough said if the power lines arced, a tripping event would normally be picked up on the system and none of its lines had picked up such an event at the start of the fire.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand has been contacted for comment by Hawke’s Bay Today.