Community meeting in Kaimaumau tomorrow

28 December 2021

Tomorrow morning Fire and Emergency NZ is holding an information session for residents of Waiharara and Kaimaumau affected by the Waiharara fire in Northland.

Incident Controller John Sutton will update the community on progress fighting the fire, health and safety matters including overnight access to the fireground, and the long-term planning for recovery.

"We still have a lot of work to do before we can declare the area safe, and we want to explain to the community what we’re doing," he says.

The information session will be at the Wharemaru Marae O Kaimaumau at 11am and will also be livestreamed on the Northland Fire and Emergency Facebook page so that those who can’t attend can watch live or later.

Higher humidity and consistent winds have made firefighting efforts a little easier for the ground crews and machinery operators tackling the fire today.

Mr Sutton says the size of the fireground has increased to 2330ha with a perimeter of about 40km following the breakout on Boxing Day.

Light rain fell in the area overnight but only 0.4mm fell on the fireground. No further significant rain is forecast over the next few days.