Far North fire: Fourteen fire engines dispatched to tackle bush blaze in Rawene overnight

Northland firefighters have spent the night tackling a bush fire in the Far North town of Rawene.

A spokesperson from Fire and Emergency NZ said they first responded to the vegetation fire at 5.55pm yesterday afternoon.

It was initially a second-alarm fire but was upgraded to a third-alarm event at 10.22pm.

In total 14 engines and crews responded but this morning only two remained at the scene.

Second-alarm and third-alarm refer to the severity and size of the fire.