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Local National Wildfire Readiness and Prevention campaign kicks off
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) launches early National Wildfire Readiness and Prevention campaign as a fifth deployment heads to Canada to assist with ongoing wildfires in Canada.
FENZ is urging people to start preparing for the risk of wildfire early as hotter drier weather is forecast this summer.
In a 1st September announcement, Service Delivery Wildfire Manager Tim Mitchell said that the forecast higher temperatures, reduced rainfall and windier El Niño weather pattern predicted for this summer is likely to cause higher levels of fire danger on the east coasts of both islands.
“Given this year’s flood events and wet conditions, people will likely find it difficult to understand the wildfire risk New Zealand could be facing soon,” he says.
But a spell of hot dry windy weather will quickly dry out the grass and vegetation that has grown and will likely grow over the coming months, due to the moist soils and return to warmer weather. This will become a fire risk if not managed.
“Ninety-eight per cent of New Zealand wildfires are caused by people and people can do a great deal to prevent wildfires occurring and to help protect themselves and their property,” Tim Mitchell says.
Starting this month Fire and Emergency will provide locationspecific, live fire danger advertisements if the level is High, Very High or Extreme through social channels, YouTube and Google search.
From late September, social media, online video, digital display, and radio will prompt semi-rural and rural dwellers to prepare their homes and properties for a wildfire. Real-time and localised fire danger levels and fire season information can be accessed on MetService’s desktop and app platforms. Meanwhile, on 26 August, a fifth deployment of Fire and Emergency and forestry company specialist personnel departed Auckland airport to assist with the ongoing wildfires in Canada. Echo deployment consists of two Divisional Supervisors, two Heavy Equipment Group Supervisors, one Air Operations Branch Director, one Helicopter Coordinator and one Area Representative.
An international effort has been made to assist Canada, with firefighters from Australia, United States, South Africa, France, Mexico, Costa Rica and Brazil all pitching in. This New Zealand deployment will provide support and relief to local fire managers who have been fighting the fires since May.
Fire and Emergency has already deployed 92 firefighters across four deployments to the country to help with the firefighting efforts. The majority of those firefighters were on the ground undertaking ‘arduous firefighting’.
