Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 13 February 2019
rugby draw
Waimea fire as it unfolded Page 6-7
LIFTOUT
Fire crews and police ‘stunning’ Colin Williscroft Reporter
colin@waimeaweekly.co.nz
Firefighters and the police were “absolutely stunning” dealing with the effects of the wild fire that began in Pigeon Valley a week ago but whoever opened up gates and let stock out didn’t have a clue what they were doing, one of the first people evacuated from the area says. Merv and Patricia Randle live on Pigeon Valley Road South, about 700m from where the fire started at about 1.20pm last Tuesday. Merv says he could see it from his kitchen window. He heard the volunteer siren go off in Wakefield, then saw a fire engine arrive, followed by a water tanker. “Within an hour, all hell had broken out,” he says. The work done by firefighters and the police since then was hard to fault, he says, and everyone he knows is extremely grateful for the work they had
done under very trying circumstances. Fortunately for Merv and Patricia the south-westerly wind took the blaze away from them. Having experienced bushfires in Australia, Patricia got up on the roof and stuffed towels down the top of downpipes, before filling them with water. She was aware that 80 per cent of homes that burnt down in bushfires caught fire before flames got there and wanted to do everything she could to stop that happening to her home. Because of the wind direction, they went to bed about 11pm marvelling at the pink sky radiating about two ridges away but not too worried about their own safety, despite having seen what Merv says was the “furious pace” the fire travelled. The next morning they woke around 5am to find their deck bathed in a beautiful orange and pink glow. As for the fire itself, it looked like lava coming down a hill, he says.
SEE PAGE 2
Page 23
In at the deep end
full Story PAGE 4 Vet Nurses Becky Goodall and Afra Dixon, with Macca, one of the current residents of the richmond Showgrounds. Photo: Matt McCrorie
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