Port Hills fire: ‘We’re not out of the woods yet’

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

The Port Hills fire has burned across 630 hectares and spread inside the Christchurch Adventure Park’s boundaries overnight.

Eighty households were evacuated, the city’s mayor said, but Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) said no structures had been lost “thanks to the great efforts of our crews”.

The main fire was around Summit Rd. Firefighters had successfully put a fire break in around Worsleys Spur to Dyers Pass Rd, Mosby said.

Fenz was aware northwesterly winds were forecast to build from about lunchtime, so the focus on Thursday was to “hit the fire hard with the resources we have already“.

The fire broke out about 2.15pm on Wednesday - the anniversary of the devastating 2017 fire - and a local state of emergency remains in place.

Fenz said 80 firefighters were on the ground on Thursday, while in the air were 15 helicopters with monsoon buckets and two fixed wing aircraft focused on retardant drops.

A community meeting would be held for affected residents at Te Hāpua Halswell Centre at 11am.

Also on Thursday morning, two helicopters had been diverted to a vegetation fire burning through scrub in the View Hill area of North Canterbury, to would help six crews “who are mopping up, focusing on areas of unsafe terrain”, Fenz said.

A grass fire also threatened structures near Rolleston in Selwyn just before 9am on Thursday. Four Fenz trucks and one tanker responded and it was contained within an hour.

An evacuation centre had been set up at Halswell Library and Community Centre, and a second at the Lincoln community centre for people closer to Selwyn.

A community meeting would be held for affected residents at Te Hāpua Halswell Centre at 11am.

Late Wednesday, Fenz asked for help from the public as an investigation into the cause of the fire began.

Anyone with photographs or videos of the Port Hills taken between 1.45pm and 2.45pm (30 minutes before the fire was reported to 30 minutes after) Wednesday were asked to email them to PortHills2024Photos@fireandemergency.nz with their name and contact details, when the photo or footage was taken and where the photographer was.