Waipoua River fire 50% contained; evacuated Northlanders still unable to return home

Flames and smoke from a scrub fire in the Waipoua Forest. Photo / Ōmāpere Volunteer Fire Brigade

A blaze tearing through more than 96ha at Waipoua River in Northland has been 50% contained.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand says fire crews made good progress establishing containment lines.

Twenty homes in the Waipoua Settlement, in the Kaipara District, were evacuated overnight after the fire broke out about 2.15pm yesterday.

Some of them had to leave via the beach as flames blocked access to State Highway 12.

Residents were sent to iwi Te Roroa’s nearby Waikara marae, which has been set up as a manaaki (support) centre.

Flames and smoke from a scrub fire in the Waipoua Forest. Photo / Ōmāpere Volunteer Fire Brigade

Incident controller Corey Matchitt said ground crews worked hard alongside eight helicopters and five heavy machinery operators to contain the fire.

About 50 firefighters from various Northland brigades were battling the blaze on the ground.

“We continue to have structure protection in place and no structures have been lost to fire,” Matchitt said.

Some homes were reportedly just metres away from the fire front.

Helicopters used monsoon buckets to douse properties with water to prevent them catching alight.

Evacuated residents have not yet been able to return home and may not be able to for seven days.

Matchitt said the fire will be a long-duration incident but evacuees were front of mind.

“We can appreciate how stressful it can be to be out of your home when a fire is near, so we are doing our best to get them back home, but only when it is safe to do so.”

Te Roroa Development Group general manager Snow Tane told RNZ some crews had to be pulled back yesterday as conditions became too risky and the firefighting was left to those on board the helicopters.

Residents and firefighters in some areas became trapped and had to wait until helicopters went in and doused the area before they could evacuate.

Tane said the area around Dargaville north to the Hokianga was probably the driest point this summer.