The Rangitikei Rural Fire Service will soon be able to return to the sky.
Thanks in large part to a donation from local Freemasons the service has now raised enough money to replace its drone which was damaged while surveying the June floods.
Lodge Rangitikei secretary Brian Short said the money came from funds donated with the local group and a contribution from the national body.
All up the Freemasons donated $1350 to go towards the $3000 drone along with Rural Fire's own fundraising and just over $900 it received from a Givealittle campaign.
The Freemasons have supported other local charities such as Edale Aged Care and the Mayoral Relief Fund in recent times and thought the drone was another good cause.
"We saw the effect of the floods that we had. It affected a lot of people," Mr Short said.
Lodge Rangitikei master Graeme Hill said it wouldn't have been possible without help from the Freemason's Wellington based charity.
The Rangitikei Rural Fire Service is one of the first groups in the country to use drones for emergency work, using its camera to track fire movement or help locate people.
Since late last year it had been used to help deal with fires such as the Santoft fire in February, two missing-person searches and during the oil spill clean-up on the Manawatu coast this year. It was hoped the new drone would be up and running before Christmas and the coming fire season.
Fire force controller Kirsty Chaffe said the help from the local Freemasons had been huge.
"This gets us back to where we were," she said. "We've had a very good response from a wide area of the community. It's really been the icing on the cake to over the hurdle."
The service will continue to raise money in the hope of getting thermal imaging gear to further help fight scrub fires.