Owners of spared Port Hills home dwell on what could have been in Christchurch fire

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Homeowner Dave Schiel shows the damage around his Christchurch property, which was within metres of becoming destroyed by fire.

Dave Schiel is one of the lucky ones.

One of two raging bush fires in Christchurch's Port Hills was 'lapping at the walls' of his home by the time he arrived back from work on Monday night.

Damage around Dave Schiel's Christchurch property.

Schiel reckons he has had about one hour's sleep since then.

Trees, paddocks, fences and some of the walls at his 23-hectare property have been left blackened by the heat.

Helicopters with monsoon buckets fight the fire above Kennedys Reserve.

* Two fires on Christchurch's Port Hills destroy house

* Photos: Huge fire tears through Christchurch's Port Hills**

'We were up all night fighting blazes in various areas. We were really lucky.'

His wife, Barbara Hayden, who works from their home just off Early Valley Rd, found the blaze 'terrifying', Schiel said.

'You can see how close it came,' he said.

One of Schiel's first jobs the day after was getting water to his stock.

'There's a lot of stock up here.

'I've got cattle, lord knows where they were . . . I think they all survived, but you've got to get water on.'

Down the road, Chris Bayley said within four minutes of seeing smoke he was driving out his driveway through flames.

'I was home here about 5.30pm and I was outside the house with a tradesman. We noticed some smoke licking up the front of the property.

'I rounded up the kids and the animals and a couple of precious bits.

'By the time we got the car loaded up and past the place you're sitting here [about 15 metres from Bayley's house] the flames were coming over the driveway.'

Bayley took to four-wheel-drive tracks over farmland to eventually escape on to Summit Rd.

'There was no way down the road [to Early Valley Rd], the bottom of the road was engulfed in fire.

'[We] headed up the road, checked in on the neighbours where we could [and] encouraged them to come with us,' Bayley said.

'We stopped at the summit and watched the until about 7.30pm.'

Bayley said the fires were 'absolutely' the worst incident he had seen while living in the area.

'We had assumed the worst, I thought the house was gone.

'It just didn't seem feasible it could escape.'

After making it off the Port Hills, through Gebbies Pass Rd, Bayley and his family watched from Tai Tapu Rd as flames danced around their property.

'I had some hope at that point, but while we were watching smoke started increases behind the house and I saw flames started licking around the footing,' Bayley said.

'I had great difficulty getting through to any kind of control from the cordon, so I had to ring 111 again and report that.'