New Zealand’s Port Hills Suffer Large Wildfires

Xinhua/APP

Wellington: New Zealand fire crews were responding to a large vegetation fire in the Port Hills near Christchurch, covering about 650 hectares, Fire and Emergency New Zealand said on Thursday.

A state of emergency was declared on Wednesday hours after the large fire broke out, seven years after the devastating February 2017 fires that burned more than 1,600 hectares of land in the Port Hills, claiming the lives of one firefighter and destroying nine homes and two other structures.

Wednesday’s fire forced evacuations from 80 properties, with no homes having been lost in the blaze.

Local conditions in New Zealand’s Canterbury in late summer this year were conducive to wildfire development, said Nathanael Melia, director and principal scientist at Climate Prescience, a climate change consultancy.

“In contrast to the stormy 2022–2023 summer, 2023–2024 is a big El Nino season, and the globe continues at record temperature levels,” Melia said, adding that ongoing drought conditions above extreme fire risk thresholds are in the background.

George Perry, a professor of the School of Environment at the University of Auckland, said the changing climate is increasing the frequency and severity of wildfires and escalating the risks not just in rural areas but also where people feel more secure, like the edges of cities.