After a hectic time during one of the busiest fire seasons in recent memory, last week's rain finally provided respite for the region's "flogged" firefighters, including members of CHB's urban and rural volunteer fire brigades.
"It's bloody brilliant. When I saw how heavy and persistent it was on [Thursday] night, it brought a smile to my face. It's given us a bit of a reprieve," said Waipukurau's chief fire officer, Steve Walker.
At times last week, CHB's urban and rural firefighters were "at the front line" alongside colleagues from Napier, Hastings, Havelock North and crews from nine other brigades from around the country as they fought major fires at Waimarama Rd Havelock North and at Colin White Rd at Te Hauke.
A state of emergency was declared in Hastings last Monday, and lifted on Wednesday once the two major fires, plus another at Ripia Stream near Te Pohue, had been brought under control.
Before Thursday's rain, National Rural Fire Authority incident controller John Sutton said he was resting the local firefighting force for two days, before they resumed monitoring the sites at the weekend.
Sutton said the local crews had been fighting fires for weeks and after the latest events were pretty "flogged".
"Many of them have day jobs or are self-employed and have families so we need to give them time to catch up."
The Tamatea Rural Fire Force attended the Colin White Rd fire on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Last Monday, crews from the Tamatea, Omakere and Elsthorpe Rural Fire Forces attended the Waimarama fire which a crew from Wallingford RFF attended on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Our fire crews were at the front line," CHB's deputy principal rural fire officer Bruce Kitto said. "The Tamatea crew was instrumental in saving a house [at Waimarama] which had one outside wall burning when they arrived. They were able to extinguish it and protect it," he said.
Otane Volunteer Fire Brigade attended the first two days at Colin White Rd as well as Waimarama and chief fire officer John Oliver said the rain relief was timely.
He said last week was one of the busiest he could remember for his volunteers.
"They are pretty buggered. A bit of a break will do us some good, I reckon," he said.
Waipukurau CFO Steve Walker said his brigade and two crews from Waipawa Volunteer Fire Brigade were intial responders at Colin White Rd.
A van of his volunteers then travelled to Waimarama where they spent the next nine hours as extra firefighting personnel.
He praised the commitment of, and sacrifices made over the past few past few weeks by his volunteers.
"They all lost a half day's work to assist at Waimarama," said Walker, who was also conscious of the commitment shown by employers who had volunteer firefighters on staff.
"They deserve a pat on the back. The volunteer service can't operate without these employers allowing their workers to go at a moment's notice."
As of Friday, Walker said his brigade had responded to 30 callouts in 47 days, including fires, car accidents and other incidents.
Tikokino Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Mike Harrison and another of his firefighters drove their brigade's tanker to Waimarama where they spent eight hours supplying water.
"We were right in the thick of it."
Harrison said his brigade had attended 11 callouts so far this fire season, compared to their yearly average of 60.
"The callouts just seem to be bigger than last year, with all these grassfires."
Waipawa's chief fire officer Willie Christall described this year's fire season as "just incredible".
"This year we seem to be getting calls for grass fires every second day."
Christall, a truck driver for Stephenson Transport, was grateful his superiors understood the demands of his firefighting role.
"I pulled into the yard [last] Monday and went into the dispatch office when the siren went, and my supervisor said, 'you'd better go'. And I really appreciate that," he said.