Rawene scrub fire: Still burning, but houses no longer threatened

The large fire burning on a rural Rawene property yesterday afternoon. Photo / Supplied

Firefighters are still at the scene of a large scrub fire in Rawene that began late yesterday afternoon.

Rawene fire chief Zak Bristow said the fire covered "a couple of hectares" and was well-involved when crews arrived.

Two fire trucks remained at the scene today, and a helicopter was also being used to attempt to fully extinguish the fire.

Last night, the fire threatened three nearby houses before firefighters, who worked through to midnight last night, managed to dampen it.

Although nearby properties are no longer under threat, the fire is still burning, 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."

A spokesperson from Fire and Emergency NZ said this morning they first responded to the vegetation fire at 5.55pm yesterday afternoon.

It was initially a second-alarm fire but was upgraded to a third-alarm event at 10.22pm.

In total 14 engines and crews responded but this morning only two remained at the scene.