A real-time Civil Defence exercise to voluntarily evacuate Hanmer Springs on Sunday put the village’s wildfire preparedness plan to the test in a race against time.

The scenario involved a wildfire reported northwest of the village at 9am, caused by an electrical fire from an overheated campervan. Fire and Emergency NZ modelling taken from previous fires in recent summers predicted the fire would take 1 hour 37 minutes to get to the top of Conical Hill. From there, it would take another two hours to reach the boundary of Hanmer Springs.

Evacuation manager Grum Frith said the challenge was to doorknock 1,600 properties within two hours, with 12 teams deployed from 2.30pm to activate the voluntary evacuation.

Supporting the doorknocking teams of volunteers and emergency responders was emerging technology developed by Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Canterbury.

Hurunui District Council Emergency Management officer Allan Grigg said the new technology connected data captured by the doorknockers and uploaded it directly to the Sector Post Coordination Centre that had been set up in the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa staff office.

“This showed real-time data of the property addresses as they were being doorknocked, capturing who were voluntarily evacuating, who were choosing not to evacuate, and who needed assistance.

“One of the main outcomes we were looking for in this exercise was to get some metrics on the time and resources required to doorknock 1,600 properties. We didn’t get to all the properties and our next step is to analyse the data and build the time versus resources requirements into the wildfire preparedness plan.

“In an exercise like this we were not able to use the national Emergency Mobile Alerting system, but in a real event this would be a primary alerting tool, with texts going out to every cellphone within range of the Hanmer Springs cellphone towers. The doorknockers would be adding another layer of alerting and supporting the community during an evacuation.”

Over 100 people chose to self-evacuate before being reached by the doorknocking teams. Self-evacuees included a group from the school of about 20 students, accompanied by seven teachers. Over 100 needs assessments were completed at the evacuation centre to assess people’s needs.

“We had emergency vehicle sirens and public address systems announcing the exercise, with updates being provided over Compass FM, Council’s website and Facebook page, and the Hanmer Springs Notice board and Hanmer Springs Residents – Exclusive Facebook pages.”

Grigg thanked the Rapid Relief team, which provided food and catering at the evacuation centre for evacuees and responders, and the community, which donated over 100 spot prizes.

The multi-agency exercise brought together Police, FENZ, Hato Hone St John, Land SAR, Rapid Relief Team, Red Cross, Hurunui District Council, Taskforce Kiwi, and Waimakariri, Selwyn and Christchurch Civil Defence Emergency Management teams. In total, over 100 people worked on the day across multiple locations to plan and support the evacuation.

Hurunui District Mayor Marie Black acknowledged the strength and resilience of the Hanmer Springs community and thanked the community and local volunteers who had made the exercise possible — helping to put the wildfire preparedness plan to the test.

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