Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
The fire at Lee Valley is now considered contained and controlled.
Incident Controller Steve Trigg says 20 firefighters will continue working throughout Sunday, but there will be a gradual scaling back of crews over the next few days.
“We saw an increase in wind strength overnight, but we had crews monitoring the fire and the wind had little impact on the fires behaviour.
“We are now in mop-up mode and will slowly be reducing our presence on the fire ground.”
Firefighters are continuing to be assisted by a specialised drone crew to identify and extinguish hotspots.
Drone capability has meant crews have been able to locate and extinguish hotspots much faster and more accurately.
“Having the drone team here has been invaluable,” Steve Trigg says.
“They have assisted crews working in very difficult and dangerous terrain, meaning progress has been faster than expected.”
The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
Steve Trigg says on behalf of all the team that has worked on the fire he would like to extend his thanks to the community for their support and patience while we have brought this fire under control.
The next update on this fire will be when Fire and Emergency hands the site back to the landowners, which is expected to be at some point during the week.
