Tasman transitions to recovery after Pigeon Valley fire
With the Civil Defence State of Emergency being lifted as of 8am on Wednesday February 27, we are now transitioning into the recovery phase.
Work on the planning around the recovery phase started when the Civil Defence State of Emergency was declared, to ensure the community’s needs are met and there is an ongoing consistency in approach from the response to recovery phase.
We are focusing on three main areas in the recovery phase;
- Fighting the fire: Fire and Emergency New Zealand will continue to work on putting the fire out completely. This may take a few weeks or months depending on the weather.
- Welfare: we are here to support and advise those affected by the fire. We will be doing welfare assessments, response and outreach activities to ensure our communities’ wellbeing.
- Coordination of the fire damage or damage by machines to contain the fire: we’ll be working together with landowners to assess the damage and determine with them how the work could be done.
Recovery manager Richard Kirby said “We all need to stay vigilant to new fires starting. The conditions are still bone dry and the recent Moutere Hill fire shows us how fast things can take a turn for the worse again. Please be extremely careful outdoors”.