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A witness has described the devastation at Lake Ōhau after a fire swept through the village on Sunday.
Stuff Reporter Charlie O’Mannin was traveling back to Timaru Sunday afternoon after a weekend homeless man in the Huxley River Valley with friends as he was driving into the devastated village.
O’Mannin said he had been out of cell phone coverage for much of the weekend, only becoming aware of the fire as he made his way to Lake Ōhau Village.
“I didn’t really appreciate the size of the fire until I got closer to town,” O’Mannin said.
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CHARLIE O’MANNIN / Things
Charlie O’Mannin said that there were rows of houses destroyed by the fire at Lake Ōhau, but that some had not been touched at all.
“The roadside markers had melted, the fire spread on both sides of the road.”
He said there were no barricades preventing people from entering the village from the northern access and there were no warnings of what was coming.
Charlie O’Mannin / THINGS
Field burned near Lake Ōhau as helicopters work to contain a fire that has destroyed many houses.
O’Mannin said there was “very little debris” with many houses completely destroyed.
“There was a place that was just a fireplace. Everything else was gone. It was surreal.
“There were entire rows of houses that were nothing. However, there were some who had not been touched at all.
“The heat was really oppressive and the winds were very strong.”
CHARLIE O’MANNIN
Stuff reporter Charlie O’Mannin said there was very little debris left on some properties he saw while driving home Sunday.
