Rain overnight on Wednesday, November 12 has continued to dampen down the fire impacted land within Tongariro National Park.
About 27mm fell overnight and more was predicted for Thursday and Friday. Further good news from the fire ground, said the Department of Conservation (DOC), was that no new fire activity was identified on Wednesday by ground crews and drone surveys.
With more precise mapping DOC has now collated more updated figures revealing fire has affected 2935 hectares (Ha) of the park. This is over varied terrain including sub- alpine scrub, alpine scrub, wetlands, frost flats and pockets of kaikawaka forest.
Following the transition of fire management from Fire and Emergency New Zealand to the Department of Conservation, the situation will continue to be managed by the local DOC office, with out-of-town DOC firefighter crews heading home. The local office will continue to ensure appropriate fire containment and safety assessments occur as they start to look towards recovery and restoration of the impacted area.
