Waikato wetland fire update #10

24 October 2024

Fire and Emergency crews remain busy at the wetlands fire near Meremere.

The fire remains contained and controlled. However, following further mapping, the size of the fire has been refined to 1039 hectares, with a 19-kilometre perimeter.

There are road closures in the area this morning, including Island Block Road from State Highway 1 to the Falls Road intersection, Falls Road and the Bridge on Falls Road.

Incident Controller Mark Tinworth says several hotspots were identified by the drone crews overnight.

"We are using air operations to dampen these hotspots down," he says.

There are two fire investigators on the ground this morning to investigate the cause of the fire. It is too early to give an indication of cause.

Mark Tinworth says people near the fire should contact the Environmental Health Officer for advice before using food, feed or water from storage tanks for drinking as these may have been impacted by smoke and ash from the fire.

"We acknowledge people will be impacted by this fire and have worked hard to limit those impacts.

"Our crews gave it their all to bring this fire under control as quickly as they did, and I want to thank them for that."

The next update will be late afternoon.