Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
The fire at Waipoua River is 50 percent contained and crews have made good progress today establishing containment lines.
Following more accurate mapping, the fire size has been updated to 96 hectares with a 4.5-kilometre perimeter.
Incident Controller Corey Matchitt says the ground crews have been working hard to get the fire contained.
“It has been hard mahi for our teams on the ground, but they have worked well in conjunction with the five heavy machinery operators and eight helicopters in the air.
“We continue to have structure protection in place and no structures have been lost to fire.”
The residents of 20 homes remain evacuated and were updated at a community meeting this morning.
The fire will be a long duration incident, but Corey Matchitt says the evacuees remain at the front of mind.
“We can appreciate how stressful it can be to be out of your home when a fire is near, so we are doing our best to get them back home, but only when it is safe to do so.”
There will be one more update tonight.
