Volunteer fire fighters around the region collectively responded to hundreds of callouts last year, often at night to quell illegal fires on riverbeds.
It is the bugbear for many of the volunteer fire brigades as people burn rubbish or gather around a fire by the river in the middle of summer with long dry grass nearby.
For total callouts, Richmond Volunteer Fire Brigade was called out 308 times last year – slightly down on the previous year of 326 - while Wakefield headed out to 222 callouts, Appleby 99, Brightwater 74, Tapawera 58 and Murchison 49.
As Richmond’s deputy chief fire officer Nigel Lammas commented, 308 callouts is not a number to be celebrated as each callout represents someone’s misfortune, but at least it was less than the previous year and the goal is fewer callouts.
“Safety for everyone is the outcome we want and that means bringing the callout number down.”
For Richmond, motor vehicle accidents caused the highest number of callouts at 48, but fires on the riverbed had the team quelling fires of vehicle parts, tyres and other rubbish. Nigel says it is not a safe practice and most of the time the fires are lit at night during the restricted fire season.
“We have major concerns about what it can do with dry vegetation around.”
Appleby’s crew leader Paul Eggers says December was the busiest month for the brigade with 23 callouts, and illegal fires on the riverbed were becoming more frequent.
“We just have a lot of trouble with people lighting fires down the river. They use tyres to get them started and they’re getting more frequent, especially over summer - and they’re in the middle of the night.”
Tapawera’s chief fire officer Dean Millar reports similar problems.
“The biggest one is people lighting bonfires and rubbish fires that they light at night. Rubbish is dumped by the river and then they bugger off. They’re unpermitted burns and burning at night. At this time of year there’s a lot more of them.
“People also camp down by the rivers and don’t realise they can’t have campfires.”
Vegetation fires prompted the most callouts for Murchison’s volunteers, accounting for 20 of its 49 callouts for the year.
Meanwhile, Wakefield’s deputy chief Dot Ashton says the community has become very aware of fire risk since the 2019 Pigeon Valley wildfire and are quick to spot smoke and call it in.
“They’re aware of what can go wrong if we don’t get on to it.”
She says callouts have increased since the fire service became first responders, with the brigade heading out to scenes to assist until paramedics arrive.
“Being a first response unit has pushed our stats up a bit more because the ambulances are under the pump, so we’re used a little bit more in that capacity. It’s good for our community that we assist in the interim until they get there.”
