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A normal night at home for Kester Vos quickly changed when her brother called to say, “Your hill is on fire.”
His 8.5 hectare lifestyle block was one of 40 properties evacuated overnight after a major bushfire in Christchurch’s Port Hills, which burned 25-30 hectares, destroyed a small shed and prompted a warning. Health Information on Smoke. The fire has been contained.
Police do not believe it is related to suspicious fires in the hills earlier in the week.
The fire started shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, but the cause remains unclear. Fire and Emergency NZ confirmed that it is following positive leads and areas of interest and has located the point of origin.
ALDEN WILLIAMS / Stuff
Kester Vos was watching television when he received a call about the fire.
Alden Williams / Stuff
The hillside on Saturday morning.
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Police said at 11:43 a.m. Saturday all evacuated residents were able to return to their homes, but Port Hills Road remained closed. Investigations into the cause were ongoing.
The Canterbury District Board of Health issued a public health warning about smoke just before 10 a.m. Saturday, and medical health officer Dr. Cheryl Brunton said that people in smoky areas, particularly those with heart or lung conditions, pregnant women, young children and the elderly, should close their windows and doors and reduce outdoor exercise.
Police confirmed around 1 a.m. Saturday that the properties, including Vos’s, had been evacuated.
“I shot out to take a look [at the fire]and in five minutes he was totally out of control, he was moving very fast, “said Vos.
He owns an 8.5 acre lifestyle block on Port Hills Rd.
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Port Hills Rd on Saturday morning.
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Firefighters continue to put out the fire on Saturday.
“The police said, ‘You have two minutes to grab what you can,’ so we just took the cars and drove off,” Vos said.
He had lost a barn in the fire, but said it was fortunate there were no machinery there.
“I don’t know exactly how close the fire was [my] home, but it should have been pretty close, “said Vos.
Fire investigators have ‘good positive leads’
It is not clear what started the fire. Firefighters and Emergencies New Zealand (FENZ), Christchurch Metropolitan Area Commander Dave Stackhouse said “we have some good positive leads” and that there were “areas of concern” just after 9am on Saturday.
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Christchurch Metropolitan Area Commander Dave Stackhouse says there are “good positive leads” about how the fire started.
STUART WOODSIDE / Supplied
The remains of a building in Port Hills that was engulfed in flames overnight.
He said fire investigators had located the source of the fire, but did not want to reveal the exact location, but said it was in the vicinity of a nearby warehouse.
Two helicopters with rain buckets and 45 firefighters handled the blaze, which had burned between 25 and 30 hectares. Approximately 60 firefighters worked through the night and some flames were visible at 7 am.
Stackhouse said the knocks heard during the fire were likely LPG cylinders in the shed that burned down.
He said firefighting conditions became ideal around 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. Saturday morning and an overpass in the morning was positive.
He said the crews had done a fantastic job preventing the fire from spreading to homes. He said the weather was on their side as only light winds were forecast.
The plan was to create a safe and contained fire zone and get people back to their homes.
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Fire crews working Saturday.
Meg Falconer / Supplied
Nearly a dozen fire crews responded to brush fire overnight.
Stackhouse hoped to return the residents of Port Hills Rd to their homes by afternoon.
Other residents of Avoca Valley Rd were allowed to return early Saturday.
Granville Denton, who lives on a small street off Avoca Valley Rd, said he was woken up around 1 a.m. when emergency services knocked on the door and told him to pack his bags and get out.
“I saw a lot of smoke and only one rose [and] reddish sky, the flames were at least twenty to twenty feet in the air, ”Denton said.
He left with his dogs and family and stayed at a family bar, he said.
ALDEN WILLIAMS / Stuff
Granville Denton was evacuated at 1 a.m. Saturday.
Corinne Mullins / Supplied
Corinne Mullins took this photo of the fire on Friday night.
A resident of Avoca Valley Rd said they were evacuated around 2 a.m. Saturday, but were heading home shortly after 7 a.m.
The resident said the evacuation process was well organized and commented, “It is what it is.”
Suspicious fires days before
Saturday’s fire comes just days after four suspicious fires in Port Hills.
Several crews were dispatched to extinguish four “small vegetation fires” scattered across Port Hills between midnight and approximately 1 am Wednesday.
The fires ranged from 40 to 1200 square meters; a rugby field is usually about 8,400 square meters.
Police said a flare was seen during the fires and they have asked for information.
They have said they do not believe there is a link at this time between the fires on Wednesday and those that started Friday night.
The Port Hills were previously the scene of a major fire in February 2017. That fire burned 1,600 hectares of land, destroyed nine houses and damaged another five.
It took 66 days before the fires were completely extinguished.
Harshish Singh films Saturday a helicopter dumping water from a rain bucket onto a bush fire in Christchurch’s Port Hills.
