Fire in the gully – again!

The ongoing fire lighting (arson) going on in the gully has been a worry for our Trust for some time. Three fires have involved a fire brigade call out and in another three the fires burnt themselves out. Late last year we commissioned the fire department to assess the risk and to advise on areas were the risk could be managed. The summer risk is high if a fire got away. A fire would devastate fifteen years of restoration work in our section of Mangaiti and there would be high risk to the surrounding houses and their properties. There is so much highly flammable material which is just the nature of the gully flora. Fire hose access would mainly be through peoples properties and there are monsoon buckets stored at Mystery Creek if needed. The recent fire at the back of the pond area by our depot is an example of this problem. In this case there is camera footage of the two lads from a neighbours security camera. This has been forwarded to the police and detectives are working to identify these “persons of interest.” Holding those to account will hopefully be a deterrent for them and others.