Crews fight Wairarapa forest fire

A helicopter with a monsoon bucket helps fight a fire in a commercial pine forest near Masterton. PHOTO/MIKE WARMAN

Fire crews using helicopters with monsoon buckets are battling a forest fire east of Masterton which is now burning into its fourth day.

As of last night the fire was burning over nearly 200ha of private land among pine trees grown for harvesting by Juken New Zealand.

One hundred and twenty firefighters and eight helicopters with monsoon buckets have been called in -- some from outside Wairarapa -- to assist with quelling the blaze which started at 9.30 on Friday morning.

Yesterday afternoon the fire had been contained within a circular boundary "but that's not to say it's under control", said Dave Hilliard, general manager forests for Juken New Zealand.

"The wind is constantly changing. At the moment it is benign but it's because the humidity is up and the temperature's down with the southerly change. But of course the weather forecast is for hot temperatures and low humidity for the coming week so there is likely to be re-ignition in places."

The blaze is being managed by the National Incident Management Team and numerous fire engines, bulldozers and excavators are being used to try to contain it. Firefighters from Wellington and Ruapehu are among the battling crews and firefighters from Gisborne were travelling to the scene yesterday afternoon to help.

"Hopefully as we can get greater and greater control the number of people and gear will be diminished, but until then we'll have to keep doing what we're doing," Mr Hilliard said.

He said no buildings were at risk but the fire had burnt its way into some of the neighbouring property.

The blaze was over a kilometre from Whareama Primary School and "there's no way it will make it there".

Three helicopters are shrouded in smoke from a blaze that that has devastated over 200h of private Wairarapa forest. PHOTO/MIKE WARMAN

A forestry worker had been carrying out an "everyday" thinning operation with a chainsaw which had sparked the fire.

"This is what happens in strong winds," Mr Hilliard said.

"Normally we don't do this sort of operation when it's really dry but there was no signal that there was high fire danger."

Mr Hilliard said he was grateful to the fire crews who had travelled from around the country to help fight the blaze, and to the Whareama community. Firefighters were using the Whareama Community Hall as a base.

"We'll be here for some weeks working on it."

Mr Hilliard said people could "expect smoke for quite some time to come".

Wairarapa principal rural fire officer Phill Wishnowsky expected crews "to be fighting the fire for a very long time".

He said the wind was "causing major issues" and the steep country and extensive number of trees and undergrowth to fuel the fire would make the mission difficult. Juken would be responsible for the cost of putting the fire out.