By Thursday 27 February, the Waipoua forest blaze had grown to 96 hectares, with a 4.5 kilometre perimeter, Fire and Emergency NZ said. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
About a third of the evacuees from Northland's Waipoua Forest fire returned to their homes last night, with the rest expected to follow in coming days.
About 20 people fled their homes at the height of the fire on Wednesday afternoon, with some reaching State Highway 12 while others had to make their way to the coast for safety.
Incident controller Phil Larcombe said 97 firefighters were still on the ground Monday, working alongside heavy machinery.
He said the weekend's efforts to contain the fire had been successful, and the goal was to make sure there was no heat left in the 30 metre wide containment line.
He was grateful to the large number of firefighters who had travelled from around the North Island to help put out the blaze.
The total area burned was now 91 hectares with a perimeter of just under 6km.
About a dozen evacuees stayed at Waikarā Marae, near Aranga, where some ended up after walking down the coast.
Others were taken in by whānau and by Taita Marae in Dargaville.
The fire is mostly in young pine trees and slash. It was contained before it could spread to nearby native forest.
