Many of you know will know all about the peat fire near Meremere that burned its way through 1039 hectares of Whangamarino Wetland last week.
So, I wanted to take this time to express my sincere thanks to all at Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) who battled through the week to get this fire under control.
They include many of our district’s own volunteer firefighters who once again showed their value as integral members of our communities who put everything on the line to keep us safe, this is part of the reason why I wanted to recognise their efforts at this year’s Mayoral Awards.
What you may not know much about is our Council’s involvement in dealing with the impacts of the fire.
While FENZ were managing the incident in terms of the response we set up an Incident Management Team (IMT) to support FENZ wherever we could.
We did this in the following ways:
- Our emergency management team, who have been working really hard with the community on response plans, linked up with the Te Kauwhata community team to ensure they were prepared if needed.
- Our marae resilience team played a co-ordinating role in ensuring mana whenua were kept up to date as the week wore on. They were also involved in establishing needs of community members affected by the fire.
- The IMT ensured the official information from FENZ was being shared through various channels.
- Our partners at Waikato District Alliance were called upon to set up cordons on roads in the area at short notice.
- Our partners at Watercare were prepared for extra water supply should it have been needed as a result of ash and debris created by the fire impacting rural water supply.
At the time of writing, FENZ had handed over control of the incident to the Department of Conservation (DOC), who are working very closely with mana whenua as the area has high environmental and cultural significance.
The globally rare habitat is one of the few remaining raised peatlands in the southern hemisphere.
The unique habitat supports a high diversity of threatened native wetland species, including black mudfish/waikaka, Australasian bittern/matuku-huurepo, and spotless crake/puuweto.
It also hosts many threatened plant species and is the only known location of the critically endangered swamp helmet orchid.
So the environmental damage is large and the recovery process, which will be led by DOC in collaboration with mana whenua, will take decades.
But if it were not for the efforts of FENZ, DOC, mana whenua and local volunteers, it could have been so much worse.
When diverse communities unite to battle a raging fire, it showcases the extraordinary strength, resilience, and compassion that make our community truly exceptional.
A sincere thank-you to all those mentioned for keeping us safe, including the many people and organisations involved—volunteers, emergency services, territorial authorities, health and environmental professionals, and more—for your collective efforts for us all and our precious environment.
