One of six helicopters working to contain the fire burning in steep terrain on Mt Creighton on 9 October 2022. Photo: Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Firefighters are preparing for possible gales as they work to extinguish a bushfire near Queenstown.
The blaze started on Friday afternoon on the slopes of Mt Creighton and has since burned through roughly 230 hectares of manuka and tussock grassland within a 13-kilometre perimeter above Glenorchy Road.
Specialist vegetation crews have been using hand tools to extinguish hotspots identified by thermal imaging with two helicopters on standby to assist.
Fire and Emergency incident controller Mark Mawhinney said the situation was stable overnight but it was expected to worsen later today.
MetService has issued a strong wind watch for possible severe gales from this afternoon in Southland and Otago.
"There is a window of favourable weather this morning before winds are forecast to strengthen this afternoon," Mawhinney said.
"Gusts of 120 [km/h] are possible. In those conditions, all firefighters would be withdrawn from the fireground and aerial operations will stop."
Up to 15 millimetres of rain was also expected to fall.