{"id":173054,"date":"2025-12-08T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173054\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T03:49:11","slug":"helicopters-battle-large-fire-in-tongariro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/173054\/","title":{"rendered":"Helicopters battle large fire in Tongariro"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents have been urged to prepare for evacuation as five helicopters battle a large vegetation fire in the vicinity of Tongariro National Park this afternoon \u2013 just a month after a massive blaze scorched 3000 hectares in the area.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were alerted to the fire just after 1.10pm on Monday.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said the fire, which was initially reported as multiple blazes, merged into a large fire around 110 hectares in size.<\/p>\n

“There are 10 trucks and six support vehicles in attendance working alongside the helicopters.<\/p>\n

“Crews from National Park, Owhango, Whakapapa, Ruapehu Rural, Waimarino Rural, Turangi, Southern Lake Taupo Rural and Whanganui are in attendance.”<\/p>\n

Emergency services were alerted to the fire, near the site of a blaze in November, just after 1.10pm on Monday. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The Department of Conservation asked visitors to Whakapapa area and tracks to leave, with residents contacted to prepare for evacuation if necessary.<\/p>\n

Shane Isherwood told 1News he was at the entrance to the Tongariro Crossing as the fire had started “just down the road” from where the November blaze began.<\/p>\n

“I’m a shuttle operator for the crossing, and we’re just getting back into it after the last fire. It’s quite devastating since the last one was three weeks ago.”<\/p>\n

Michaela Watson, who was tramping in the area, said it all happened so quickly.<\/p>\n

“We did the Tawhai Falls walk and when we got back to the car 40 minutes later, we couldn\u2019t believe our eyes. It’s so devastating for our region.”<\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

Smoke billows from a fire in the Tongariro National Park. (Source: Sol Kahn)<\/p>\n

NZTA said State Highway 47 was closed between the State Highway 46 and State Highway 48 intersections due to the blazes.<\/p>\n

“Please follow the detour and allow extra time for travel,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Ruapehu District Council said Civil Defence was monitoring the situation and were ready to stand-up resources to assist response if required.<\/p>\n

\"Smoke<\/p>\n

Smoke was visible on the Mount Ngauruhoe volcano camera. (Source: GNS Science)<\/p>\n

Around this time last month, a devastating wildfire scorched 3000 hectares of Tongariro National Park<\/a>, burning out of control for almost three days.<\/p>\n

Helicopters, planes and ground crews fought to contain it as flames triggered evacuations of trampers and residents.<\/p>\n

Scrub fire closes highway in Hawke’s Bay<\/p>\n

State Highway 2 has been closed by a scrub fire between Wairoa and Mohaka this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Police said motorists should avoid the area and delay travel if possible.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency NZ said crews from Wairoa and Putorino were attending the blaze, reported at 1.43pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents have been urged to prepare for evacuation as five helicopters battle a large vegetation fire in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,31044,43,40,38,41,39,4143],"class_list":["post-173054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-manawatu-wanganui","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}