Crews expected to be mopping up at Rawene fire for several days

The fire in Rawene, which affected 6ha, late on Sunday afternoon. Photo / Supplied

Firefighters are expected to be at the scene of a large scrub fire in Rawene for the next few days.

One crew was still at the scene of the fire at edition time yesterday , supported by one helicopter.

Fire and Emergency NZ incident controller Clinton Lyall said the firefighters were a composite crew from several brigades.

"The crew is reinforcing the containment line [yesterday] and is likely to be at the scene for another couple of days, mopping up," Lyall said.

"No homes have been damaged and there were no formal evacuations, although two households are understood to have self-evacuated as a precaution last (Sunday) night."

The total area affected by the fire was about 6ha.

Rawene fire chief Zak Bristow said the fire was well involved when crews arrived.

On Sunday night, the fire threatened three nearby houses before firefighters, who worked until midnight, managed to dampen it.

Although nearby properties are no longer under threat, the fire was still burning yesterday morning, Bristow said.

The blaze began as a small rubbish fire that quickly got out of control, in a rural area with kikuyu grass, wilding pines and forestry slash.

"It was a local who is relatively new to the area who's just bought a section out there who just thought that he would light a small fire and burn a bit of rubbish," Bristow said.

"All the conditions were just not in his favour so we're stressing that exceptional care needs to be taken when lighting a fire."

Fire and Emergency NZ first responded to the vegetation fire at 5.55pm on Sunday. It was initially a second-alarm fire but was upgraded to a third-alarm event at 10.22pm.

In total 14 engines and crews from various brigades including Kaikohe, Broadwood and Kohukohu, responded but only two remained at the scene by yesterday morning.