A senior Northland firefighter is supervising ground crews battling a large fire on the Chatham Islands that is estimated to have burned about 3000 hectares so far.
Former deputy principal rural fire officer for Whangarei and Kaipara, Mike Sullivan, left on Saturday and has been appointed operations manager in charge of 10 firefighters.
He's expected back in Whangarei on Thursday. The blaze, which broke out last Thursday, has ripped through land roughly equivalent to about 3000 rugby fields.
Two helicopters with monsoon buckets have worked on the fire, supported by ground crews, many of them from Wellington.