Drone operators are being urged to keep their machines away from fires.
The Naenae scrub fire came within 20m of houses. Photo: RNZ / Amber Woolf
In the Lower Hutt suburb of Naenae last night, 11 crews and two helicopters carrying monsoon buckets worked to put out a fire that had burnt through two hectares of bush.
The fire came within 20 metres of some houses, and several were evacuated, but no property was damaged and nobody was injured.
Incident controller Jason Hill said the helicopters were forced to ground after an unauthorised drone was spotted in the air.
"If you are flying, we can't and any drone operation around a fire has the potential to cause a catastrophic incident, especially with a helicopter. Ultimately that leads to the grounding of our aircraft."
Firefighters are returning to the site today to dampen down hotspots.