"Another house was being threatened - I didn't realise it at the time but it belonged to a client of ours, Richard Chambers. I filled the monsoon bucket from the swimming pool and went round and round the house ... our first priority was to save the houses."
Helicopters Hawke's Bay is "first callout" for rural fire services in Hawke's Bay.
"With three machines already flying that day we were already stretched, so we had to call for help from out of town. The first call we made was to Taupo and they were quick to respond.
"The conditions worsened quickly. The wind and the temperature that day - every element was working in the fire's favour. We concentrated on putting volumes of water on, as quickly as we could."
By Monday afternoon 10 helicopters were being used to fight the fire, filling monsoon buckets from the Tukituki River and Lake Lopez. Another helicopter flew above them at 3000m, an aerial platform for the fire commander from which to co-ordinate the efforts below.
With the Tukituki River not deep enough to get full buckets, diggers stationed nearby were commandeered to dig big holes in the river, to better fill the monsoon buckets.
It was not ideal flying conditions, said Guerin.
"But you seldom have a fire on a good day. Fire creates its own conditions, it does funny things. The wind can swirl above a fire and the hotter it is the faster the wind shifts. It was quite rough above the Waimarama Rd fire - not unsafe, but rough enough."
Flying with a monsoon bucket underneath was just part of a day's work for the Helicopters Hawke's Bay pilots, said Guerin.
"We regularly fly loads under our helicopters, so that part was second nature."
Over the course of the Waimarama Rd campaign Guerin was flying a Squirrel, while Allen piloted the company's Notar and Horgan was in a Jet Ranger.
Helicopters Hawke's Bay provided the refuelling trailers and tanker crew on the ground for the air-based crews which included two veteran Iroquois helicopters from Taranaki.
"Everyone we got hold of was willing to help. It was refreshing to have such good people to call on. It was a huge job for the local crews. The two Iroquois went straight from the Waimarama fire to help in Christchurch.
"Our clients were great too - we were pushing jobs back for three days, but everyone understood."
The helicopter crews were finally stood down on Wednesday morning, with ground crews remaining on site.
"We went straight from there to the Ripia River where a fire had also been burning, we checked that out with thermal imaging equipment and that is under control. The Colin White Rd fire is also controlled now - we mapped that out as 360 hectares."
Guerin said while the crews were exhausted, there was a sense of satisfaction that the fire was contained and nobody was hurt.
"Our biggest disappointment is that we didn't get to save that first house. But at least everyone was safe."