{"id":624241,"date":"2026-10-08T09:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624241\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:52:13","slug":"massive-vegetation-blaze-near-queenstown-contained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624241\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive vegetation blaze near Queenstown contained"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive vegetation fire near Queenstown has been contained and crews have been stood down.<\/p>\n

Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) made the announcement on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

District Commander Blair Kiely said that after an assessment of the conditions on the ground this afternoon and the expected weather, the fireground was being handed back to the landowners to manage.<\/p>\n

The exclusion zone for vessels near the Walter Peak shoreline has been lifted.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday Kiely said the blaze\u00a0no longer posed\u00a0a threat to the historic Walter Peak homestead\u00a0after crews had made \u201csignificant progress\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kiely said crews, helped by cooler temperatures and overnight rain, had concentrated on extinguishing remaining hotspots and \u201cstrengthening containment lines around the fire edge\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said some areas might continue to smoulder over the next few days and people might\u00a0notice smoke.<\/p>\n

Flare-ups would be monitored and Fenz would respond if there were any indications that fire could spread outside the perimeter.<\/p>\n

A further aerial inspection of the fireground would be made on Monday.<\/p>\n

The highly visible fire had burned mainly tussock, scrub and some tree cover.<\/p>\n

It had spread from Walter Peak Station along the McKinlays Creek area, and had\u00a0also affected parts of adjoining conservation estate and Cecil Peak Station.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The blaze on Wednesday morning. Photo: Fire and Emergency New Zealand <\/p>\n

No homes, buildings, or livestock had\u00a0been lost as a result of the fire, Kiely said.<\/p>\n

Crews had been working closely with landowners, the Department of Conservation and local iwi to identify and protect areas and values most at risk.<\/p>\n

“While our priority has been to protect structures and livestock, we are very conscious of the environmental impact of vegetation fires,” he said.<\/p>\n

Fenz investigators will undertake a formal investigation to determine the cause of the fire, in line with standard procedures.<\/p>\n

“That will include any connection with the controlled burn undertaken on the Walter Peak High Country Farm on September 30.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The fire continuing to burn on Tuesday night. Photo: Jo Smith <\/p>\n

Kiely on Thursday night\u00a0said the fire had\u00a0burned an estimated 1350 hectares of land, mostly on Walter Peak Station, Cecil Peak Station and adjoining Conservation Estate.<\/p>\n

Fenz earlier said the blaze had burned 1400ha of land.<\/p>\n

Walter Peak High Country Farm and Walter Peak Station are separate properties, with different owners and management.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The fire burning on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Fire and Emergency NZ <\/p>\n

Queenstown’s mayor John Glover said the blaze was “confronting”.<\/p>\n

“It’s very large, very visible –\u00a0and the fact that we haven’t been able to contain it is top of mind for everyone involved in the response.”<\/p>\n

It\u00a0was normal for high country stations in the area to have burns this time of year to renew land for spring – but these could get out of control, he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a real stark reminder of the fact that our hillsides can be dry and if we get a wild fire it can spread quite easily.”<\/p>\n

– Allied Media\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The massive vegetation fire near Queenstown has been contained and crews have been stood down. Fire and Emergency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-624241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624241","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=624241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}