Coromandel wildfire: Black Jack Rd to fully reopen

Black Jack Rd will fully reopen today after the Coromandel wildfire in Kūaotuna.

Fire and Emergency NZ said this morning’s drone flight confirmed three areas of deepseated burning left.

“We aim to finish extinguishing these today and then will move to monitoring over the weekend.

“Black Jack Rd is open today but please go slowly as firefighters will be on the road at times, dealing with the last hotspots.”

Incident controller Shane Bromley thanked everyone who had supported and encouraged firefighters and incident management team “over these long days, including all the offers of food”.

Department of Conservation firefighters who have been on the Black Jack fireground in Kūaotunu on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Fire and Emergency

“We’re planning a casual community event to bring everyone together later next week once everything has wrapped up - details to come.”

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Crews battled strong winds and steep terrain to fight the fire at Kūaotunu, which broke out on Saturday

Black Jack fireground in Kūaotunu on the Coromandel Peninsula. Photo / Fire and Emergency

Photos released by Fire and Emergency NZ showed the extent of the fire damage to the area and the burning was described by as “deep-seated”.

Fire and Emergency drone teams used thermal imaging to identify hotspots while ground crews and helicopters fought the blaze.

Earlier this week Bromley described “arduous conditions, working on steep slopes in high temperatures”.