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National | Fire

One of Hawke's Bay's biggest forest fires under control

One of the biggest forest fires in Hawke's Bay is being brought under control. But emergency services say they are still not in the clear just yet with the fire between Tangoio Settlement Rd near Napier and SH2 in Wairoa.

Eight helicopters were on the job this afternoon, 70 crew and 20 local fire trucks with help from Palmerston North.

“Currently, we're getting control of the fire in Tangoio and the weather has been very favourable for us today after yesterday, but yesterday we were unable to make much progress at all,” Trevor Mitchell, Hawke's Bay principal rural fire officer, says.

“But today we've got really good crew and aircraft capability, they are making some really good headway.”

The fire began Monday morning, with strong winds causing the fire to flare up to 140 hectares.

“It accelerated very quickly with the wind yesterday and overnight, it's now burnt 350 hectares. It'll be one of the biggest fires in Hawke's Bay definitely.”

Though the fire is largely contained this afternoon, with the two water bombers now stood down, flare ups need to be monitored.

“It's going to be a number of days, if not a couple of weeks, to fully extinguish the fire. We've still got a lot of work ahead of us.”

The cause of the blaze is yet to be determined by investigators.