An aerial shot of Matakana Island, looking towards Tauranga, shows some of the damage from a fire that began on Saturday night. Photo / Supplied
Firefighting crews who managed to contain a large forestry fire on Matakana Island in the Bay of Plenty will be spending their Christmas back on site to ensure it doesn’t flare up again.
The fire began on Saturday night and burned through about 37ha of scrub and pine slash on the island.
In a statement released last night, Fire and Emergency New Zealand district commander Jeff Maunder said helicopters and monsoon buckets, heavy machinery and fire crews would return to the island this morning “to work on extinguishing the fire”.
There had already been a heavy firefighting presence on site since the fire began and the blaze had largely been extinguished.
At least two helicopters, nine fire trucks and 24 crew members were battling the fire on Sunday.
While most of the flammable scrub and slash were already burned, “with the wind continuing to ease, we’re confident of holding the fire contained within its current perimeter”, Maunder said
The fire crews working today were expected to monitor the fire.
On Sunday, kaumatua Hauata Palmer said he lived a distance away from the fire behind a big shelterbelt, but there was concern the fire could spread and potentially affect people “living on the old mill side”.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand was alerted to the fire at 7.36pm on Saturday when it was about 300m by 300m in size.