Favourable conditions on Monday meant the fire appeared to be extinguished. Photo: Fire and Emergency NZ
Fire and Emergency crews in Tongariro National Park will be back at the scene of wildfires, hoping for more rain to keep hotspots damp.
Favourable conditions on Monday meant the fire appeared to be extinguished.
Thermal imaging drones were expected to be used overnight to check for hotspots after fires that had turned more than 2800 hectares of land to ash.
MetService forecasts rain clearing in region from early Tuesday morning and then fine, aside from isolated showers.
Incident Controller Nigel Dravitzki told Checkpoint the favourable conditions had helped reduce the fire, but there was still a lot of work to be done.
"Visibility it looks out, but we are doing thermal imaging and drones over it tonight to see if we can pick up any activity or hots spots we can't see."
He said this type of fire would require walking the perimeter edge and digging up hot spots to confirm there was no fire activity.
"It is tough grunt work," he said.
Next steps were working on how to manage the situation going forward, he said.
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