The Star: June 22, 2017

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
Thursday June 22 2017 9
White House
Port Hills fire cost $4.5m
The Oval Office, where she was
invited to photograph President
Obama sign important documents,
was smaller than she had
always imagined, she said.
The amount of security checks
and clearances she had to go
through to first be approved and
then to enter the White House
grounds were also something she
had never experienced before, she
said.
She was working there when
Donald Trump became president,
and said the atmosphere completely
changed as he replaced
most staff, right from the security
to the interns.
“I think the new administration
coming in weren’t fully prepared,
they didn’t have the same
political background. Everyone
was polite but it was chaotic.
They’re obviously still finding
their feet,” she said.
Ms Wilding’s background is in
the film industry, and she spent
some time living in LA before
moving to Washington DC – but
she said Hollywood was “child’s
play” compared with work in the
White House.
She said many correspondents
there had worked in the White
House for 20 or 30 years, and
breaking in as a New Zealander
was very difficult.
“You do feel like a minority,
and realise we are from a very
small country that doesn’t make
much difference. They’d rather
answer a question from someone
from Korea, because of the importance
of the relations there, or
from one of the five major American
networks,” she said.
DOWN TO
EARTH:
Anna
Wilding said
Michelle
Obama
was never
afraid to get
her hands
dirty, even
in the White
House
garden.
FIGHTING THE Port Hills
fires cost the Department of
Conservation more than $4.5
million.
Two fires, several kilometres
apart, started in early February
this year; two days later they
had combined. Helicopter pilot
and ex-SAS soldier Steve Askin
died when his chopper crashed
trying to fight the fires. Nine
houses were destroyed and two
were significantly damaged.
Hundreds of people were evacuated.
DOC spokesman Andy
Roberts said the department
contributed more than $3.5
million in operational costs and
$1 million in staff and other
internal costs. This amounted to
about half of last year’s firefighting
costs of $8.7 million.
“The department supplied
more than 130 fully trained
rural firefighters, including fire
behaviour experts, air attack
managers and sector leaders
during the fires, which started
in February and burned for two
months.
“If we add in time spent on
aerial mapping, incident planning
and other background
support roles, that would come
to more than 11,000 hours of
DESTRUCTION: A helicopter battles the fire with a monsoon
bucket.
PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER
staff time, some of whom were
on duty for up to 15 hours a day.
This all amounts to about 50 per
cent of the total costs incurred
on the Port Hills fires, which
destroyed some 1660ha.”
DOC has to respond to fires
within a 1km margin of protected
areas. No public conservation
land was burned in the Port
Hills fire.
DOC had also helped
fight major fires at Broken
River, Hawkes Bay, Hanmer and
Queenstown during last summer’s
fire season. More than 460
staff are fully trained to fight
fires on or near conservation
land.
“DOC will always have an interest
in rural fire and the threat
it poses to the natural and heritage
values that DOC is charged
with protecting.
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