Kaitaia Senior Station Officer Ross Beddows said crews from Kaitaia and Pukenui took water from the property owner's bore, and 2000 litres he supplied in a spray tank on a trailer.
"We were there for more than two hours," he said, "but one positive to come out of it was the discovery of a calf in a swampy drain while we were sizing up the fire.
"Pukenui stopped it from damaging a shed, and farm boundary fences were only slightly damaged."
Then came a call to Kenana Road, south of Mangonui. A crew from Mangonui was on its way to Kaitaia when that alarm was raised, and was sent back to Kenana to deal with it.
"It got a bit messy there for a while," Mr Lyall said.
"Resources were shuffled around based on highest threats and good sit reps coming in from the responding brigades, who may not have been aware of the other fires."
The Paihia Brigade responded to another blaze, on Puketona Road, Haruru Falls, on Saturday evening, a returning helicopter being diverted as cover if required.
"This was a rubbish fire that was lit by the property owner, who said he had read that the [fire] ban was off," he said.
"If they had read on they may have seen that restrictions were on and require a permit. They will be getting a visit from us, and are more than likely to get a recovery bill.
"This person is typical of some who do not realise that their poor decisions push already stressed resources to the limit.
"Just to round it off, another fire was reported at Broadwood. The Broadwood Rural Fire Force investigated, and found it to be a permitted burn.
Brigades were pushed to the limit, he added.
"Kaitaia had 11 calls on Saturday, including the fires at Mangonui, and two at Houhora [the second was on Cemetery Road]. All these brigades and fire forces are volunteers, so this is all time away from their families and jobs. They appreciate that they join their respective brigades/fire forces to do their bit for the community, but the community can help by just thinking about what they are doing.
"Admittedly most of these fires aren't lit to deliberately cause trouble, but it is the dumb ones that annoy us. These are the ones we will follow up and go for recovery."
The weekend's 'heavy helicopter response" was the result of limited and stressed resources that were currently available in the Far North. Most contract crews were either still deployed at Pouto or had just arrived home from there, and were deserving a good break.
"We would like to thank all the crews that responded and who were transferred for back-up. They did a bloody good job of wrapping these fires up," Mr Lyall said.
They were the Kaitaia Fire Brigade (FB), Mangonui FB, Okaihau FB, Pukenui Rural Fire Force (RFF), Kaikohe FB, contract firefighters from Far North Roading, SaltAir and Northland Helicopters, while the Taupo Bay RFF and Kaitaia RFF had offered support if required.
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The Kaitaia Fire Brigade responded to 14 calls in two days, nine of them between 2.30pm and 10.40pm on Saturday.
