Teams fighting intense scrub fires will be seeing red in Northland this summer.
For the first time in the district, helicopters will dump monsoon buckets filled with a red-coloured fire retardant ahead of fire fronts to prevent flames from spreading.
The retardant, mixed with water, is used for wildland fire control in forest, scrub and grass areas in America and Australia and has previously been used on fires in Canterbury.
Whangarei and Kaipara principal rural fire officer Kevin Ihaka said the season was starting to heat up and already there had been a major scrub fire at Mangawhai that got dangerously close to million-dollar beach houses.
"The weather had been pretty good at this stage but people are taking risks because they think there is no danger when burning fires. But a day with wind and a fire will quickly pick up."