The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) supplied other vehicles where needed to move personnel around the fire ground.
The incident management team planned for a handover of control back to the NZDF today – one week after the fire started.
“Fire and Emergency will continue to support the New Zealand Defence Force incident management team by providing firefighting crews and specialists through the coming week,” Cottrill said.
Waiōuru firemaster and operations manager for this incident, Staff Sergeant Matthew Anker, said it had been invaluable for the NZDF to work with Fire and Emergency through “such a complex and challenging incident”.
“On behalf of the NZDF, I want to thank Fire and Emergency crews, incident management teams and specialists for their exceptional support, expertise, and dedication in helping us manage and control this fire,” Anker said.
“While we are achieving good containment over the fire ground, significant work remains within the bush sectors to fully extinguish underlying hot spots.
“Our combined teams will continue working tirelessly in the days ahead to safely return the military training area to standard operations as quickly as possible.”
Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.