Photo: RNZ / Susan Edmonds
Helicopters will back at first light battling the Northland scrub fire that has destroyed about 20 hectares of vegetation.
The blaze broke out at Whangārei Heads early on Thursday afternoon and quickly spread.
Crews from Whangārei and Onerahi were bolstered by four helicopters with monsoon buckets and another one monitoring the fire.
The residents of two homes evacuated, and crews put protection measures in place overnight at one of the properties.
It is not yet known how the fire started but it's expected to take another two days to extinguish.
Smoke at Whangārei Heads from a vegetation fire can be seen from the water. Photo: Supplied / Diane Green
Fire and Emergency NZ operations manager Denis Cooper said the fire behaved well yesterday due low wind and high humidity, which has put them in a good position today.
"Today's job is to get a containment line running around this fire, which we're quite comfortable we will be able to make that happen and then we will be able to map it a bit more precisely," he told Morning Report.
Cooper confirmed the two homes that were evacuated yesterday are no longer at risk, and that is unlikely to change.
"We're very happy to say we've got no loss of properties, and we are not likely to lose any," he said.
Cooper believes it will probably take another three days to put out the fire, but they hope to contain it today, with 35 firefighters and other support people working to achieve that.
Metservice meteorologist Alec Holden said cloud cover, showers and cooler conditions should benefit fire crews as they continued to battle the 20-hectare fire.
Holden said this afternoon's easterly wind would likely shift to a northerly in the evening, but was not expected to be strong enough to make the fire jump containment lines.
"There is a lot of cloud cover and roaming showers around. It should make conditions or easier for firefighters to get hold of the blaze. Conditions should be cooler and hopefully if they get a shower over the top of the fire, it should be real easy to jump on top of it and wrestle it down," he said.
Holden said humidity was high, around 80 to 90 percent, which would also work in firefighters' favour.
Whangārei Heads Road reopened late on Thursday but motorists are urged to drive with caution and look out for emergency service vehicles.
Meanwhile, a restricted fire season covering all of Northland came into force at 8am on Friday.
The restrictions mean a permit from FENZ is required to light any outdoor fire.
Fire limits in Waikato
Fire restrictions are in place for all of Waikato District as of Friday.
Anyone wanting to light an outdoor fire from 9am today will need a permit authorised by Fire and Emergency.
The fire service's Waikato district manager, Daryl Trim, said the risk of fires getting out of control continued to increase, despite the recent cooler conditions.
Conditions were expected to dry out further and crews were continuing to monitor the weather and the fire risk.