The Port Hills fires in Christchurch were some of the most intense and complex blazes New Zealand firefighters will ever face. The toll included a helicopter pilot, 11 houses and 2000 hectares of bush and farmland. Some firefighters took stands which will go down in fire folklore.

Reporter Martin van Beynen looks back at four days when the Port Hills were ablaze.

A fire works its way through trees towards an Early Valley house as fire engines rush to its aid.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Summer was late in Canterbury but by February the hills around Christchurch had turned a bleached wheat brown.

The pine plantations dotted around the hills bent and strained in the constant wind and valleys facing north baked in the hot weather.

Early Valley Rd, only about 10km from the centre of Christchurch, wound its way up the Lansdowne Valley, the parched land rising steeply up on one side and more gradually on the other.

The valley was sheltered and pleasant with small farms, houses on big sections, hedge rows, gardens, stock yards and stands of big trees, mainly pine.

Most of the houses were on the gentler, lower slopes but others were perched high up on the well-treed north-facing rise and their owners had to drive up long winding tracks to get to them. The fire risk was always a talking point in the valley. Some of the locals had organised their own equipment and a sort of Dad’s Army fire brigade had formed.

On Monday, February 13, a nor’wester blew. The fire that would burn, often ferociously, for the next four days and cover 2000 hectares started in grass just beside Early Valley Rd and moved up the south side of the road towards the houses high up on the dry slopes. The nor’wester shoved it along like a broom and the front quickened and soon the hills and trees were ablaze. Fires on slopes always went faster.

Selwyn District principal rural fire officer Doug Marshall had a gut feeling the fire could be devastating.PHOTO: IAIN MCGREGOR\/FAIRFAX NZ


Selwyn District principal rural fire officer Doug Marshall had a gut feeling the fire could be devastating.
PHOTO: IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ

Doug Marshall, the Selwyn District principal rural fire officer, saw the clouds of thick smoke rising from behind the hills as he stood in the South City Mall car park. That’s a big stubble fire, he thought.

Because he hadn’t got a text, he assumed it was in Christchurch city’s patch. Then he got a call from his city council counterparts. It was a close thing but the fire was in his jurisdiction.

He would have been involved anyway - everyone helped with the big ones - but since it was his patch he was responsible for setting up an emergency control room at the Selwyn District council building in Rolleston. That was if the fire was serious enough and he had a gut feeling about this one.

It started as a small fire beside Early Valley Rd. 
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

It started as a small fire beside Early Valley Rd.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

The first 111 call was at 5.44pm and the first fire crews from the city arrived in their red trucks about 20 minutes later. The blaze was already massive and dangerous. The only escape route for the fire crews was back along narrow Early Valley Road so that had to be kept open.

The 13-tonne trucks spread out along the road to protect the houses and police helped evacuate their occupants. Some residents wanted to stay to fight the fire and were not happy to join any forced exodus. Andy Nicholson had to be threatened with arrest before he would leave.

The fire trucks carried only 1300 litres of water which lasted about six minutes so the fire crews needed tankers quickly. They worked mainly on the left flank of the fire where more houses were at risk.

The smoke built quickly as those in the city below spotted the clouds. PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

The smoke built quickly as those in the city below spotted the clouds. PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

Denise McKenzie, who had lived on the slopes above Early Valley Road with her husband Ken for 20 years, sat in her living room and suddenly it seemed as though night had come early. She went outside and saw a wall of flames coming her way.

She jumped in her car and sped down her winding driveway through the smoke towards the fire engines. The house is going to go, she thought.

Timelapse video: How the fire grew.

Omar Yusaf, a fire service veteran, was one of the first to arrive with his crew and they ran hose lines as the flames devoured long grass, gorse, matagouri and trees. The firefighters cooked in the heat as they dragged the heavy hoses along the road and then donned their backpacks to take hoses up the steep slopes.

From the start water was short and the fire grew hotter and bigger.

Al Hutt, the rural fire officer in charge of the incident, saw the fire channel off to consume the easy fuel.

Boulders dislodged during the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 and held up by the thick scrub rolled down as the scrub burned. Like a bloody pinball machine, he thought.

With the houses evacuated his main concern was the safety of his fire crews. His rule was if you’re breathing smoke you’re in the wrong place.

Yusaf and his crew drove up to a house at the end of a long driveway. It looked like a wrecker’s yard with old cars all over the section. He noticed a dog inside one of the cars about to be engulfed in flames. Surrounded by smoke, another dog ran around beside the car. They grabbed both.

The dogs, Lucy and Elvis, belonged to the Gordon family – John and Margaret, and their three children Billy, 20, Rosie, 18, and Jesse, 16.

Some residents left their homes willingly, others needed more coaxing. 
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

Some residents left their homes willingly, others needed more coaxing.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

After rescuing the dogs, the fire crew got as close to the Gordon's house as they dared and shouted to see if anyone answered back but didn't hear anything except the wind and the fire crackling. The smoke and heat stopped them getting closer and as they retreated they opened gates and fences so stock could escape.

The Gordons were flown out by chopper before the fire crew arrived.

John Gordon managed to move eight cars to higher ground although Margaret left behind jewellery from her grandmother.

What should I grab? Billy thought. We’ll be back, the house will be all right. We’ll be sweet.

He grabbed his mother's pencil drawings and Rosie took a photograph of her parent's wedding. Just before he got in the helicopter, Billy took a photo of the home he grew up in.

The Port Hills fires, as seen from Diamond Harbour at sunset on Monday.
PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The Port Hills fires, as seen from Diamond Harbour at sunset on Monday.
PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ

VIDEO: ALEX LIU

On the afternoon of the fire, only two helicopters were immediately available for fire fighting in Christchurch. Most were up in Kaikoura working on the highway blocked by huge landslides after an earthquake a few months before. Christchurch Helicopters, a company owned by pilots Terry Murdoch and All Black legend Richie McCaw, had two of their choppers ready to fly and pilot Doug Monk was the first to arrive at the fire about 6.30pm.

Onlookers watch the fire build through Early Valley. 
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

Onlookers watch the fire build through Early Valley.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

Monk took three of the imperilled Gordon family out in the Squirrel and Murdoch flew in 15 minutes later to pick up John and Billy. By then another fire had started three kilometres east of the Lansdowne Valley fire. The new blaze, spotted by mountain bikers, was at the top of the Port Hills at Marleys Hill near the main road between Christchurch and Governors Bay.

The fires were too far apart to be connected and therefore arson was immediately suspected.

With residents safe, Monk hooked on a monsoon bucket and started dropping water on the Early Valley Rd blaze while Murdoch took the fire bosses up for a look. Steve Askin, flying for Way to Go Helicopters, arrived from Kaikoura and was soon joined by another four choppers. The pilots did as much as they could before nightfall.

The first fire engines arrived at the blaze 20 minutes after they were called. 
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

The first fire engines arrived at the blaze 20 minutes after they were called.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

The new blaze at Marleys Hill was a distraction no-one needed. Askin was sent over to investigate and fire crews and tankers had to go as well. A tanker manned by Governors Bay volunteers drove past the fire because they had been dispatched to Lansdowne Valley.

By nightfall the fire had engulfed the Early Valley Road home Phil Claude had built himself with the help of mates and family. Earlier his wife Katie sat in the kitchen watching the flames approach and drove to pick up daughter Ruby who was out for a jog.

The fire was already big, and dangerous.
PHOTO:  SCOTT FULLERS

The fire was already big, and dangerous.
PHOTO: SCOTT FULLERS

They ran down the valley as Phil tried to drive up Early Valley Rd through the dense smoke. They ended up on a track and Phil drove his 4WD up to meet them. Fin Claude, 17, had been out with mates and from Kennedys Bush Rd looked over the valley and watched clouds of smoke billow from the only home he and sister had known.

Christchurch Metro commander Dave Stackhouse handed over full control to rural firefighters on the first night of the fires.PHOTO: IAIN MCGREGOR\/FAIRFAX NZ

Christchurch Metro commander Dave Stackhouse handed over full control to rural firefighters on the first night of the fires.
PHOTO: IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ

About 10.30pm the red trucks manned by the city firefighters were stood down and the rural fire fighting crews took over. Christchurch Metro commander Dave Stackhouse and Canterbury area commander Dave Berry handed over full operational command to the rural firefighters.

Crews needed tankers quickly. 
PHOTO: SCOTT FULLERS

Crews needed tankers quickly.
PHOTO: SCOTT FULLERS

Yusaf wasn’t the only firefighter to be surprised at the decision but Marshall later explained there wasn’t much anyone could do safely in the dark and it was better to rest staff who would be needed the next day. He told the rural crews, whose lighter gear meant they couldn’t take as much punishment as their metro counterparts, to pick a line and defend it. But structural protection was not their job and, at 2am, when the fire came back down the slopes threatening more houses the city fire crews were called out again.

Tuesday was a hotter, drier day than Monday but confidence was high.

Again the priority for the fire bosses and crews was to protect life and property. They were worried about the Cass Peak radar station, perched on a jagged rock at the top of the Port Hills just south of the Sign of the Bellbird, and important plants and native trees in the Kennedys Bush reserve nearby.

A stocktake at the morning’s briefing showed the fire on Marleys Hill still churned away and it was hard to gauge the scale of the fire around Cass Peak.

As Tuesday dawned, the cloud above Christchurch's Port Hills was growing bigger.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

As Tuesday dawned, the cloud above Christchurch's Port Hills was growing bigger.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

The big difference from Monday was that fire bosses had 11 helicopters at their disposal. An early aerial survey highlighted the need to steer the fire away from the heavy fuel in the pine plantations all over the spurs and hillsides.

The big difference on day two was that fire bosses had 11 helicopters at their disposal. 
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The big difference on day two was that fire bosses had 11 helicopters at their disposal.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Three or four helicopters were assigned to the Marleys Hill inferno and the balance were sent to douse the well established blaze above and around Early Valley Road. Where possible excavators and bulldozers cut breaks around the big timber and fixed wing planes sprayed fire retardant.

The fire bosses thought ahead to Wednesday when the wind was forecast to change to a strong easterly. They started to think about areas that needed attention to make it easier next day.

"No . . . it can't be, it can't be," John Gordon said as he saw his crumpled house for the first time.PHOTO: DAVID WALKER\/FAIRFAX NZ

"No . . . it can't be, it can't be," John Gordon said as he saw his crumpled house for the first time.
PHOTO: DAVID WALKER/FAIRFAX NZ

While some looked ahead, others counted the cost of Monday’s fire. The houses that belonged to the Gordon and Claude families had been reduced to curls of twisted, bare corrugated iron. Only the hard metals, concrete and rock survived.

As the Gordons drove up the blackened slope on Tuesday they knew something was wrong when they couldn’t see the peak of their house.

"No... it can't be, it can't be," John Gordon said as the full picture of the destruction came into view.

At least 40 cars had gone and a pine plantation at the back of the property was scorched and charred.

Others like Early Valley Road resident Sierra Bayley were more fortunate. She was astounded to see her house surrounded by charcoal and ash but still standing.

Denise McKenzies’ house Early Valley Rd house had been kept intact by helicopters. 
PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Denise McKenzies’ house Early Valley Rd house had been kept intact by helicopters.
PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ

In the middle of a patch of black, the McKenzies’ house, thanks to the choppers, was also intact. But trees the couple had nurtured for 20 years were burnt sticks.

The Claude family were hopeful. They had been told their house had been singed but had survived. They had a shock coming. Their house had burnt to the ground.

Helicopters made progress, risking their lives amid the smoke.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

Helicopters made progress, risking their lives amid the smoke.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

The choppers flew all day Tuesday water bombing the worst spots. Back and forth over the dry hills. Fill, release, fill again. They had to refuel every 60 minutes or so. An accident was always on the cards and at 2.45pm the calamity no-one wanted to think about struck.

Steve Askin was killed instantly when his helicopter went down on Sugar Loaf. PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

Steve Askin, who was flying near the Sugar Loaf telecommunications tower crashed into a steep slope below the Summit Road on the Lyttelton side. His black Squirrel lay crumpled against the brown grass.

Steve Askin was a decorated New Zealand Special Air Service soldier.

Steve Askin was a decorated New Zealand Special Air Service soldier.

Several pilots landed next to the wreckage to help but he had been killed instantly. All the pilots knew Askin, a former New Zealand Special Air Service soldier, who was decorated for bravery after three tours in Afghanistan.

The chopper pilots took a break after the accident but all were flying again within an hour.

By nightfall on Tuesday, the fire had burned over 548 hectares on Early Valley Road, 36ha around Marleys Hill and spread into the grounds of the new Christchurch Adventure Park, going close to the top chairlift station. But the fire bosses were reasonably happy with progress and felt the fire was pretty much contained.

The fire had begun to spread into the Christchurch Adventure Park by Tuesday night.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The fire had begun to spread into the Christchurch Adventure Park by Tuesday night.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The blaze had other plans. After dark , the fire tracked south-westwards over the Summit Road into two valleys and towards houses in Governors Bay. It moved down the steep slopes into the Ohinetahi Reserve and houses above Allandale were evacuated about 3am on Wednesday.

Everyone fighting the fires knew Wednesday was going to be a hard day although some were more optimistic than others.

Some felt the fire would be brought under control on Wednesday. 
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Some felt the fire would be brought under control on Wednesday.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The air effort now had 14 helicopters including two Iroquois helicopters owned by Beck Helicopters based in Taranaki. The Hueys could carry about 1800 litres in their monsoon buckets, about 500l more than the more nimble Squirrels. Alan Beck, who had flown for 45 years and fought fires in Australia and the United States, was appointed as one of the lead pilots for the day.

It was a late start because of cloud and the pilots met at the Christchurch Helicopters base in Harewood where McCaw was piloting the DeLonghi and making everyone coffee.

Richard McNamara is one of the most experienced men in NZ at fighting large  fires.PHOTO: IAIN McGREGOR\/FAIRFAX NZ


Richard McNamara is one of the most experienced men in NZ at fighting large  fires.
PHOTO: IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ

Richard McNamara (Mac to most), the principal rural fire officer for Marlborough, had come down from Blenheim to take charge of the aerial attack for the day. A veteran of fires in Australia and the United States, he was one of the top men in his field in New Zealand. At a briefing in the morning he told the pilots they wouldn’t win today but Thursday would be different.

Beck didn’t quite see the need for such pessimism.

“We thought we’re here from the North Island. We’ve got the big Hueys. We’re going to get this,” he would say later.

The pilots were told there was no shame in standing down after Askin’s death. You need to have your head totally in the game or don’t do it at all, someone said.

But all were there to fly and the day would be so busy they wouldn’t have time to think about mortality.

The fires remained dangerously close to residential areas. 
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The fires remained dangerously close to residential areas.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

By Wednesday morning the fire that had gone over the hill and headed towards Governors Bay was no longer a big concern although it needed two helicopters flying sorties to quell a couple of big fires sending up clouds of thick dirty white smoke.

Residents around the Ohinetahi Bush Reserve were allowed back to their homes by lunchtime. The fire hadn’t reached any houses but residents could see the once bushed slopes black and smouldering.

More than half of the reserve had been wiped out including a kanuka forest thought to be 80 years old.

"It's decades of work. Decades of work. We're all just trying to come to terms with what's happened," said Tony Edney, a Summit Road Society volunteer and Governors Bay resident.

“It was a fabulous habitat for bellbird and there were a lot of other natives starting to come up through the kanuka.”

The easterly wind changed everything. 
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

The easterly wind changed everything.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

By late morning on Wednesday most of the chopper pilots thought they had the fire licked. By then the fire had burned through about 1,000 hectares but the end appeared to be in sight.

Beck spent the morning dropping water on the trees and scrub in the valley to the east of Worsley Spur between two lines of pylons that spanned the valley.

He wasn’t worried so much about the pylons. It was more the zip lines along which the Adventure Park’s flying fox ran that kept him on his toes. It went well and by midday he thought it was pretty much over bar the shouting.

Suddenly, the fire became an inferno. 
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Suddenly, the fire became an inferno.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

But McNamara was right. When the easterly cranked up to near gale force around lunchtime the trouble started.

“Jesus, I don’t like the look of this,” Beck thought.

The flying became more difficult, the choppers and pilots being thrown around in the disturbed air. A ball breaker, in pilot slang.

Beck told everyone to back off their loads a bit.

By 1pm the fire threatened houses at the top of Worsleys Road, which ran up a spur a few ridges over from Early Valley Rd. Residents saw ember showers and red tinged smoke and the 111 calls started.

The fire funneled its way downhill, lapping up dry vegetation.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

The fire funneled its way downhill, lapping up dry vegetation.
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

After 30 years living on Worsley Spur Ken Reese knew the area like it was his own farm. He remembered the big fire in 1988 when Air Force Iroquois had flown through the night to douse flames.

The fire breaks that were cut after those fires had been neglected and gorse grew vigorously on nearby land but he and others tried to do their bit.

During summers he kept the grass in his paddocks short and when the Early Valley Rd fire broke out he soaked his section with his 40mm firefighting hoses attached to a motorised pump and kept the water up in the next few days. On Wednesday afternoon he was ready to do his own fire fighting but police insisted and he left with a box of documents and two left boots he grabbed on the way out just after 3pm.

Miranda Newbury in tears at the cordon after fleeing her home.  PHOTO: IAIN McGREGOR\/FAIRFAX NZ

Miranda Newbury in tears at the cordon after fleeing her home.  
PHOTO: IAIN McGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ

Miranda and Craig Newbury lived at the top of Worsley Spur in a beautiful home with a swimming pool which the tilers had finished only two weeks before. Like the pilots, they felt by lunchtime that the fire was beaten. At 2.15pm a police officer knocked hard at the door and told them to get out fast.

Outside Miranda saw the cloud of smoke and the orange glow and heard the noise. In a hurry the couple looked for their two tabby cats Stevie and Daisy but, frightened by the helicopters, they were nowhere to be seen.

Dave Stackhouse was up on Summit Road near Dyers Pass when he started hearing reports of the new threat to houses on Worsleys Road.

He sent three trucks and two tankers up to the top of the road and the crews worked to save five or six properties most at risk. About 2pm a Transpower line tripped in the fires and 89,000 houses lost power and council pumps feeding the fire hydrants in Worsleys Road cut out.

Stackhouse set up his base a couple of hundred metres below the crews at the top of the road. The whole area, full of big trees and high scrub, was becoming an inferno despite the choppers still dropping water.

About 5pm the fire curled around behind the fire crews at the top and walls of fire rose up on each side of the road. Stackhouse, on the other side of the inferno, worried that he had lost his men.

From the air the chopper pilots also saw things they hadn’t seen fire do before. Beck would say it was worst fire he had seen in 45 years. The pilots could feel the temperature rise sharply as soon as they were over the black ground. At some spots, water turned immediately to steam and the fire baked the muddy dirt.

About 4pm some of the pilots saw a fire tornado about 20m wide and 100m high near the Halswell Quarry. It was as bad as it could get. McNamara would later describe it as the face of evil.

Smoke exploding from the Port Hills, taken on a flight from Dunedin to Auckland. PHOTO: MICHAEL HODGSON

At Worsleys Road, a team of volunteer firefighters from Woodend and Rangiora, with Stackhouse in charge, scrambled their way up the road putting out flames to re-establish contact with the 16 firefighters further up.

The fire crews worrying Stackhouse had dug in and didn’t want to leave but the size and density of the flames were like nothing they had seen before. They worked around the houses and hung on. Senior station officer Mark Elstone, with 31 years in the Fire Service liked to call himself one of the dinosaurs. He was in charge and he wanted to stay to save the houses.

Three times, he told Stackhouse, “We’re good”.

The fire was being fought on so many fronts that popular Victoria Park had to be left to burn.
PHOTO: MARTIN VAN BEYNEN/FAIRFAX NZ

The fire was being fought on so many fronts that popular Victoria Park had to be left to burn.
PHOTO: MARTIN VAN BEYNEN/FAIRFAX NZ

Stackhouse agonised over the decision but finally made the call to retreat. He hated leaving the houses but fatalities were much worse. Elstone felt terrible leaving the properties to burn.

“It’s something we don’t do,” he said later.

Houses on Worsleys Rd are engulfed in flames.  PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON\/FAIRFAX NZ

Houses on Worsleys Rd are engulfed in flames.  
PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

By about 8pm three houses below Ken Reese’s property had exploded into flame and were gone.

By then the Christchurch City and Selwyn District councils had declared a state of civil emergency. About 1000 people were evacuated from their homes in Cashmere, Westmorland and Kennedys Bush during the afternoon.

From his base on Worsleys Rd, Stackhouse directed a bulldozer to carve a fire break around an enclave of plush houses in a cul-de-sac called Aglaia Place. The break would help save the houses.

We're not going to lose any more houses, Canterbury area commander Dave Berry told himself.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

We're not going to lose any more houses, Canterbury area commander Dave Berry told himself.
PHOTO: ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ

Around dark, when the choppers had stopped flying, the crews on Worsleys Road were beaten back again. The fire kept curling around behind them and eventually couldn’t be resisted.

Stackhouse hadn’t seen a blaze like it since he worked in America where he battled similar types of fires in stands of Redwood trees. The fire was running across the top of the trees making a noise like a jet airliner.

The firefighters pulled back again to a less difficult line to defend further down the road and held it for the rest of the night.

“I hate to dramatise it but that was a tremendous stand,” Stackhouse said later.

“If those guys hadn't done that stand there I don't know where that fire would have ended up.”

By nightfall the sky to the south of the city was alight with an orange glow and the fire flared as trees dried in the heat and then burst into fireballs like roman candles.

From vantage points around the bottom of the hills sightseers watched the lines of fire on the hills and the hot orange glow behind.

The night deepened but the battle raged on. 
PHOTO: OLIVER WATSON

The night deepened but the battle raged on.
PHOTO: OLIVER WATSON

Canterbury area commander Dave Berry was in Hoon Hay Valley Road, the valley just to the west of the Worsley Spur, and it was hot. He had spent the night monitoring the fire above Governors Bay but had been called back to help with the escalating crisis.

He had five crews, volunteer firefighters from Darfield, Lyttelton, Kirwee and Kaiapoi and also a green airport tender. When he arrived in the valley about 4pm houses and a huge implement shed had been obliterated, lost in a shower of sparks.

We’re not going to lose any more, he said. About 8pm he was dealing with another front when the fire roared down from Worsleys Rd and into pine trees where the flames jumped from top to top. The crews had to retreat a short distance to make another stand.

The whole of Christchurch was watching the flames from below. 
PHOTO: OLIVER WATSON

The whole of Christchurch was watching the flames from below.
PHOTO: OLIVER WATSON

Berry got his crews to back a truck into each of the driveways of the remaining nine or so houses. Each appliance was paired with a tanker and the tankers were kept fully supplied by two other 10,000 litre tankers provided by a contractor. The airport tender was thirsty but had the ability to spray a huge amount of water in a short time.

The strategy worked although as Berry would say later it might have been different if the wind hadn’t died down.

At 9pm, the fire jumped across Dyers Pass Road and into the popular Victoria Park near the top of the Port Hills. Those living above the Sign of the Takahe were told to evacuate. The battle was being fought on so many fronts that Victoria Park was monitored - no houses were at risk - but left to burn.

Fire crews also took a stand at the Adventure Park's brand new village which housed a 180-seat café and bar and the base station for the chairlift.

Henry Reese watches as his home burns. 

Thursday. At 7.30am Ken Reese’s son Henry was in Bengal Drive, to the north-east of Worsley Spur, from there he could see the family home. It had survived the night undamaged although was surrounded by black and smouldering land.

Where were the helicopters? he wondered.

He saw a wisp of smoke at the south-east corner of the house and by 8am, by which time Ken had joined him, the house was well ablaze and they watched it burn. Ken, who had wanted to stay to protect their house, wondered what would have happened if he had been able to get his hoses going first thing in the morning.

Paul Dorrance shouted fire crews for saving his Worsley Spur house.PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON\/FAIRFAX NZ

Paul Dorrance shouted fire crews for saving his Worsley Spur house.
PHOTO: JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ

Lawyer Paul Dorrance also watched as as the flames stormed towards his magnificent house on Worsley Spur. But diggers and bulldozers and firefighters and choppers were on their way too. His house was saved and later he shouted the fire crews.

On Thursday Miranda and Craig Newbury could see their house from the bottom of the hill. Through the haze of smoke it looked pretty much undamaged and they could see the choppers filling up from their swimming pool. Although the houses around them were razed, their house survived smelling of smoke. Daisy also returned after a few days but two weeks later Stevie was still missing.

As the cordons came down the destruction became clear.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

As the cordons came down the destruction became clear.
PHOTO: GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ

In Hoon Hay Valley daylight revealed the fire had destroyed four dwellings, a historic woolshed and a huge implement shed. One of the houses was known as the quarry master’s cottage.

The ground remained hot, but the fire was out.
PHOTO: BEAVAN READ/FAIRFAX NZ

The ground remained hot, but the fire was out.
PHOTO: BEAVAN READ/FAIRFAX NZ

A forestry block that was about 10 years away from harvest was decimated.

One of the cottage owners, Alistair Edwards, had watched the fire for three days and knew if it jumped to his side of the valley their place would be gone.

The family had just 20 minutes to get out.

They saved passports, some insurance details, a couple of photos and sports gear but 150 years of history went up in flames.
By midday on Thursday the fire was contained and pretty much controlled. Roads would remain closed, work on hotspots would continue for weeks but almost anti-climatically the fires were out.

By day four the fire had burnt across more than 2000 hectares of land in the Port Hills.

By day four the fire had burnt across more than 2000 hectares of land in the Port Hills.

The post-mortems had already started. Should the firefighters have been sent home on Monday night? The firefighters’ union wanted an independent inquiry.

Were the right people in charge? Was a civil emergency declared soon enough? Civil defence minister Gerry Brownlee didn’t think so.

Were the evacuations handled well and were officials too slow in allowing residents to check on their houses? What happened to the flow of information? Sometimes it was non-existent, at other times wildly inaccurate. Should residents be forced to evacuate? What happened to the fire breaks and why were property owners allowed to let gorse and broom grow large? Were firefighters too risk averse?

Worsleys Rd was badly hit.
PHOTO: BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ

Worsleys Rd was badly hit.
PHOTO: BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ

Hills would need to be replanted and debris removed and houses rebuilt. As the roads opened Christchurch people could see the devastation on the hills and how close the fires came to more densely occupied hill suburbs. The escape had been narrow and lessons would need to be learned.

As the planes dampened hotspots, the post-mortem started - what to do to stop this happening again? PHOTO: JOSEPH JOHNSON/FAIRFAX NZ

If you have important information about the fires based on your personal experience, we would like to know so we can expand this story.
Please email martin.vanbeynen@fairfaxmedia.co.nz

EDITORS Blair Ensor & Chris Hyde

VIDEO EDITOR Alex Liu

DESIGN & LAYOUT Aaron Wood