Ruapehu District Council emergency management officer Nick Watson uses experience to help with Nelson fire response

Nick Watson's role as divisional commander included co-ordinating crews and heavy machinery to put out underground hot spots.

Ruapehu emergency management officer Nick Watson has been in action behind the scenes and on the frontline of the Nelson rural fire response.

Watson spent two weeks as part of the team working in the region, initially assisting in the Emergency Operating Centre (EOC) where the response to the fire was planned and co-ordinated and as a liaison officer between Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and Civil Defence.

"After being on the ground for a few days, I was asked by the incident controller to work as a divisional commander out in the field where I had responsibility for three sectors in the Redwood Valley," Watson said.

"In this role I was working on the fire front, co-ordinating the response of fire crews and heavy machinery to put out hot spots.

"With the Nelson area being as dry as it is the fire can continue to burn and smoulder underground, feeding off tree roots which presents a real difficulty in being able to locate these areas and put them out.

"To help us we used special hand-held and drone deployed thermal imaging equipment and had crews working through the night which made it easier to identify the hot spots."

The fire continued to burn and smoulder underground, feeding off tree roots.

Ruapehu District Council chief executive Clive Manley said such incidents required "all hands to the pump" and the council was happy to assist by making Watson's specialist skills available.

"Prior to FENZ taking over rural fire management and response, it was the responsibility of local councils and so people like Nick, who have a depth of knowledge and frontline experience in both rural fire and civil defence and emergency management, have an invaluable skillset for situations such as this."

Watson said fire bans and restrictions were in place throughout New Zealand and people should go to www.checkitsalright.nz to find out about restrictions in their area.

"People should also be aware that all Department of Conservation [DoC] land, which makes up a large part of Ruapehu, has a permanent fire restriction in place," he said.

Anyone lighting a fire within 1km of DoC land needs to contact the DoC area office for a permit.