Bay of Plenty shelter fire leaves orchard owners devastated

They are still calculating the cost of the fire to them.

Grant Tennet said a large shelterbelt ran through the orchards and the lower part of one side was “completely burnt”.

Approximately 300m of barberry hedge protection tape, shared with a neighboring orchard, was “completely burned” on the south side of their property.

The interior shelterbelts running from north to south were burned, and up to 100 meters of Japanese cedar fencing was also severely burned and will need to be cut down.

“These shelter belt fences can be 25-30 feet (7.6-9.1 m) high, and replacing the burned sections will cost a lot of money,” he said.

“I was talking to my neighbor about costs and we might be talking over $300,000.”

The orchard also lost a lot of rootstock that would have been ready for grafting in December, Tennet said. All the plants at the top of the barberry hedge were severely burned, and others were badly scorched or burned.

The fire affected three to four blocks of rootstock citrus tree plants, and it was estimated that at least several hundred of them were lost.

“I would estimate that about a quarter of our primary resources have been severely burned, and I don’t think they will bounce back.”

The aftermath was daunting because they had to assess the extent of damage and losses, but they also had a “massive cleanup” ahead of them.

“Some of the rootstock was overwhelmed with golf ball-sized fruit, and we were going to harvest the fruit in March or April. This is also when we put out all our seeds.

“We may experience a seed shortage for next season due to some of the parent trees being severely burned,” Tennet said.

“These seeds are the main source of our business. If you don’t have seeds, you have no business.

“If we don’t have enough seeds next season and have to import seeds from Australia or America, that will be very expensive, it’s like importing gold.”

This will affect the business later as citrus trees emerge at different stages.

“You’re looking to harvest the rootstock in about 18 months, then we’ll have a shortage of rootstock and probably seeds.”

The Tennets were at Mount Maunganui when their daughter called them about the fire.

“When we ran home we only got as far as the police cordon at the top of Armstrong Rd and Snodgrass Rd and spent the next few hours sitting in our car watching fire trucks and water tankers go in and out of the area.”

Their son William, 27, who helps run the business, his best friend, and employees stayed on site to help maintain the business.

“William told us that at first he noticed a lot of smoke, then he noticed that the back side of the fence surrounding our neighbor’s orchard was completely burnt. “As the weather was very windy, the embers flew out of the shelters and moved towards our house, and the fire quickly spread to our neighbor’s orchard.”

Sharon Tennet said William refused to leave the property.

He, his friend and his staff were carrying buckets of water and scrambling to connect a hose to douse the embers reaching their front door.

“William was determined to save the family home and as much of the nursery property as possible and he stayed up all night and nearly succumbed to the smoke twice. “He is my hero,” he said.

Grant Tennet said he and his wife were devastated to see the damage when they returned to the property the next day.

“One of our neighbors who saw the fire grow said that the flames ignited by one of the shelter arches were about four times higher than the arch and tore through the property very quickly,” he said.

Tennets wanted to thank everyone who worked hard to minimize damage and losses.

“It’s going to be a dark Christmas. But at the end of the day we were really lucky, it could have been a lot worse.

“Our home and none of our outbuildings and equipment depots, which include fertilizer, forklifts, tractors and sprayers, were affected. And no one got hurt, which is great.”

Sharon Tennet said they worked hard to plant the trees and run the place and “this is devastating to me.”

“It’s so sad because Christmas is coming and all of a sudden we’re faced with this situation. It’s incredible.”

He said “amazing firefighters” spent hours at the facility from Wednesday until the early hours of Thursday morning.

“We want to say a big thank you to all the firefighters who did a fantastic job and all the other service members who came here to help us, including the police. “We are so grateful to all of them, they are heroes.”

Taupō Volunteer Fire Brigade member Roger Nelson, who is also Fire and Emergency New Zealand risk reduction consultant and vegetation fire investigator, said he was still gathering evidence and police were also investigating the fire.

He said winds were between 35 km/h and 60 km/h.

The shelter belts used on many rural estates in Tauranga were made from Japanese cedar and their sap contained volatile fractions known as terpenes.

This meant that if the shelterbelt caught fire, the sap would be “extremely flammable”.

“Orchardists… tended to burn clumps of vegetation from time to time, and the risk of fire spreading to nearby trees, plants and structures was something people should consider before lighting any fires.”

Nelson said anyone looking to light a fire should do three to five days of planning by assessing weather forecasts and humidity levels and checking the fire risk rating on the Fire and Emergency New Zealand website.

Precautions to minimize the risk of the fire getting out of control were very important.

Bay of Plenty has open fire season, which means a fire permit is not required, but this can change quickly. With the onset of summer, he urged people to be “extremely careful” before lighting fires.

Sandra Conchie He is a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post and has been a journalist for 24 years. It covers mostly police, court and other justice stories, as well as general news. He was named regional/community reporter of the year at the Canon Media Awards.