Red skies, black rain
Kiwis confront Australian bushfire disaster
The fire is so fierce it creates its own weather, says Alan Moir, sitting in his home on a peninsula in New South Wales.
Earlier that day, a filthy black rain had fallen over the coastal town of Nowra, he said, almost resigned, at the irony.
Ha¯ wera, where he was born, does not have black rain and super fires.
A New Zealander in Australia, Moir spoke to the Sunday Star-Times as he prepared to defend his home against bushfires. He lives on Beecroft Peninsula near Nowra, a coastal town under siege by flames.
Moir was preparing for the worst on a day when the raging bushfires claimed two more lives, bringing the death toll to 23.
The flames move fast, carried by embers. In Moir’s case, they were about 30 kilometres away as he spoke. ‘‘If the wind changes, as they’re expected to, that can come this way in a couple of hours.’’
Moir would be staying put in his home, near the end of the finger of land, connected inland by a single road.
His main line of defence would be a set of heavy duty sprinklers.
‘‘We have four of them around our house that spray into the air, and we’ll do that if the embers start coming.’’
He could not see the flames themselves in the distance, which was shrouded in thick, black smoke.
The fire was so fierce, he said, that every now and then they created their own weather patterns – including filthy rain.
‘‘About half an hour ago we had a bit of a rainstorm. It’s black, it was ash, so it’s black rain.’’
He said in the ‘‘30 or 40 years’’ he had lived in Australia, he had never seen anything like it.
About half of the 200 permanent residents on the peninsula had opted to stay, and if the fire arrived they could head down to the wide beaches.
‘‘We can wait for boats to take us off, or just sit it out.’’
Moir said despite his lengthy stay in Australia, which included gaining citizenship, he was always a very proud New Zealander.
He was born in Ha¯ wera, grew up in Dunedin, and was educated in Auckland.
You just had to deal with it, he said, about the stress of waiting for flames at the whim of the winds.
Things could always be worse.
‘‘I’ve been watching the TV series on Stalingrad and it’s cheered me up, watching Stalingrad.’’
Peninsula neighbour Tony Lund, formerly of Taranaki, was about to head off on a patrol of another resident’s vacant home.
The winds were very changeable, he said, and he had just spotted a smouldering leaf drifting out of the sky.
Lund was adamant things were worse for plenty of other people caught in fires inland and to the south. Nevertheless, it had been a ‘‘very ugly day’’.
‘‘The skies just go red and black, we’ve had ash showers, burnt-leaf showers, 40 degrees at times.’’
Lund, born in New Plymouth, had been in Australia for about 40 years.
He said they felt pretty comfortable staying in his home, and had ‘‘sprinklers and umpteen hoses’’ around the property for protection.
His family had the car packed and had organised ‘‘safe zones’’ to where they could evacuate on the peninsula.
But there was no thought of ever leaving Australia.
‘‘We had a bit of a rainstorm. It’s black, it was ash, so it’s black rain.’’ Alan Moir
‘‘No, I’ve been here a long time
. . . and we couldn’t imagine moving back [to New
Zealand] but certainly, right now, things are ugly being in these areas of Australia.’’
Former Aucklander and young mum Jeorgi Patterson was last night packing up her most valuable documents, and essentials such as food and water, in preparation for a sudden evacuation from the Melbourne, Victoria, home she shares with her parents and 3-year-old daughter.
While larger fires in the eastern areas were an hour’s drive away, her family was preparing to evacuate anyway, following advice from officials. Some smaller fires that had burnt close by had been doused quickly. ‘‘We’re prepared and informed,’’ she said. ‘‘Everyone has a bag or two packed with clothes, blankets, money, important documents like passports, birth certificates, insurance and anything else. We have food and water to last a few days ready to go in the pantry
. . . we have the animal cages for the cats and the leash for the dog all in the garage in a place we can get them quickly, and food and water for the pets so we can take them with us.’’ Weathering heavy criticism for its initial response, the Australian government is preparing to deploy 3000 reservists. It has also pleaded for help from New Zealand, and it is understood the Government will announce a deployment of military aircraft and personnel within days.
A Kiwi firefighter who has returned from three weeks in Australia said the scale of the disaster was ‘‘absolutely devastating’’.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand Waikato and Thames
Valley principal rural fire officer Paul Shaw said he fought four separate fires in NSW spanning 270,000 hectares.
Shaw works in a helicopter as an attack supervisor, flying 100 metres above other aircraft and directing pilots where to drop water bombs.
In NSW, he co-ordinated four air bases with 50 to 60 helicopters, and eight small fixed-wing aircraft..
The biggest challenge was the lack of resources.
‘‘All of the rural fire service guys over there are volunteers. They are there taking time out of their lives, out of their jobs, to go and fight those fires, and there’s just so many.’’
New Zealand should learn from the disaster, he said. In isolated areas prone to extreme dry weather, such as Coromandel or Nelson, the potential for a dangerous bush fire was huge at this time of year. Yet ‘‘idiots’’ on the Coromandel Peninsula a few days ago let off fireworks which ignited a hillside.
‘‘We had volunteers out in the middle of the night fighting that fire and we managed to save a number of houses that would have been burnt down.’’
Meanwhile, offers of help for Australia have been pouring in – and talk of a trans-Tasman football match to raise funds is gathering momentum after Wellington’s Sky Stadium offered to host it free of charge.
All Whites coach Danny Hay, citing the Anzac tradition, has given it his backing.