Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Crews on the ground at the fire in the Waiouru Military Training area have used the improved weather conditions today to extend and strengthen containment lines.
Fire and Emergency Incident controller Craig Cottrill says that ground conditions have improved enough to get vehicle access to some of the harder to reach areas of the fire.
“As of this afternoon the fire is 83% contained including a 30m wide strip that has been checked by drones and ground crews. The remaining areas will take a bit of hard work for crews to dig out and extinguish remaining hot spots.”
Planning has been completed today by the Incident Management Team for a handover of control back to the New Zealand Defence Force tomorrow Monday 2nd November.
“Fire and Emergency will continue to support the New Zealand Defence Force Incident Management Team by providing firefighting crews and specialists through the coming week” says Craig Cottrill.
Waiouru Firemaster & Operations manager for this incident, New Zealand Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Anker says “Working alongside FENZ through such a complex and challenging incident over the past seven days has been invaluable for me and the team. On behalf of the NZDF, I want to thank Fire and Emergency crews, incident management teams and specialists for their exceptional support, expertise, and dedication in helping us manage and control this fire.
“While we are achieving good containment over the fire ground, significant work remains within the bush sectors to fully extinguish underlying hot spots. Our combined teams will continue working tirelessly in the days ahead to safely return the military training area to standard operations as quickly as possible.”
Captions
- IMT team.jpg — Outgoing Fire and Emergency New Zealand Incident Management team members with some of the incoming NZDF members on Sunday 1st Nov 2026.
- Incident Managment team..jpg — Incident Management Team members discussing todays progress with a Sector supervisor while the crew take a break.
- Department of Conservation Firefighters .jpg — Department of Conservation Firefighters assisting on the fireline take a quick break on Sunday.