Waikato wetland fire update #7

23 October 2024

A drone sighting in the area near the Waikato wetland fire forced Fire and Emergency to halt all air operations for a short time this afternoon.

Incident Controller Mark Tinworth says this is standard practice because drones are a serious threat to aircraft.

"A mid-air collision between a drone and a helicopter could have fatal consequences," he says.

"Members of the public must not fly drones anywhere near the fireground.

"This impacted our ability to fight this fire as air operations have been our main avenue for suppression of the fire."

The drone was quickly grounded and air operations were able to resume after a break of around 10 minutes.