Citation

Pearce HG. Australas. J. Disaster Trauma Stud. 2018; 22(SI): 35-50.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Massey University, School of Psychology)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Port Hills fire of February 2017 was New Zealand's most devastating wildfire of recent times. Occurring on the outskirts of Christchurch city, it burned 1660 hectares, destroyed 9 homes and damaged 5 others, and resulted in the evacuation of more than 1400 residents from 450 households. If it were not for the efforts of firefighting agencies, the losses could have been very much greater. It is however worrying, when considered in the context of other significant rural-urban interface wildfires during the 2016/17 fire season, the trend of increasing house loss in New Zealand, and projections for future fire risk with climate change, that the Port Hills wildfire could become the norm that New Zealand fire agencies have to deal with. Now is the time to re-think the use of planning controls and homeowner education to mitigate future fire losses at the rural-urban interface.

Language: en