Six months after a wildfire tore through the rural settlement of Loburn, the volunteers are working side-by-side to restore the widespread damage it caused.
At the forefront of that army has been Loburn local Damon Hurley, who quickly realised many people wanted to help those affected by the fire.
He set up a Facebook page to coordinate the response, and the Regrow Loburn Fire Recovery Community Project was born.
Hurley said he is just one of many people who have helped out in any way they could.
The fire came within 400 metres of Hurley’s home, but surrounded his parent's property nearby, destroying their fence.
‘‘Being so connected with the event, and the neighbourhood of people affected, I simply saw the various needs and the outpouring of offers from the community.
‘‘The organiser in me attempted to make some order of it all to make it effective,’’ he says.
‘‘Three other people were part of the effort too.
‘‘The biggest contributor being Thereza Rosanowski, of Okuku, who has put in a massive amount of time - from the very day of the fire until now - connecting with the community and bringing the Loburn School into help.’’
The Waimakariri District Council’s community team has also been involved in the recovery project with $12,000 paid out to the fire-affected community from the Mayoral Relief Fund.
‘‘The council’s community team manager Tessa Sturley has done an amazing job co-ordinating with us, and arranging the financial side of things and securing funding,’’ Hurley says.
Riverside Horticulture has also played a big role in the recovery project, supplying plants and delivering them to the Loburn Domain for fire-affected community members to collect.
But the list of helpers is much longer.
Hurley’s initial aim was to make sure each affected party didn’t feel like they were facing recovery alone, by connecting the wider caring community with the smaller affected community.
‘‘We all love Loburn and it has been exciting to see it bounce back so far in six months.
‘‘It was mainly buildings, fencing and plants that were affected.
‘‘Insurance covers a certain amount, but the community has been able to pull together to regrow Loburn.’’
For Royden Piebenga, whose uninsured home was one of three destroyed in the fire, the help he has received has restored his faith in humanity and made him feel proud to be part of the Loburn community.
‘‘The help I have received has been overwhelming,’’ he says. Alan and Diana Hawkins, the owners of Karikaas Cheese, share the same sense of deep gratitude for all those who have helped them, and others during the fire and in its aftermath.
They are looking forward to a positive future, as green shoots rise among the blackened native trees outside their Loburn home and cheese factory.
The couple says the native plantings, made possible through the community project and natives they have bought themselves, represent new beginnings for them and the community, and were part of the ‘‘restoration after the fire’’.
Coupled with winning two trophies at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards earlier this year, Diana says Karikaas, which is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, is now looking to the long term and another 40 years of cheesemaking in the Loburn community.
Karikaas was fortunate to escape any loss of buildings in the fire that swept through plantings on the bank above the factory, and came close to Alan and Diana’s home a little further along the bank.
‘‘We are grateful for the efforts of firefighters, and everyone since, who pitched in, during the fire and in its aftermath, including many in the community,’’ they say.
The cause of the January 19 fire has not been established.
It was a horrific event nobody wants to see repeated.
But everyone spoken to during a recent visit to Loburn says the restoration and cleanup work has made the community stronger by bringing them closer together.
By Shelley Topp and Robyn Bristow
