There were a number of fires around the country last night - including a massive blaze on Mt Wellington - with fireworks believed to be the culprit.
Enormous plumes of smoke were rising up over the north side of Mt Wellington, enshrouding the city.
There was no road access, so firefighters were forced to roll out "hundreds of metres" of hose. A helicopter could be seen circling above the hill.
The blaze - which just before 10pm - at its peak was 200m by 100m with multiple crews working to extinguish it, Fire and Emergency NZ shift manager Carren Larking said.
She said they had had several calls from members of the public in the central city who could smell smoke inside their homes and offices which she put down to the hill fires.
Olivia Drew was at the scene and told the Herald: "Some guy came over and told us there were a bunch of young adults and they'd been letting off fireworks and then it just caught on fire. Then they ran away obviously and we ran over to see it when it was just starting. And now you can see that it's massive."
Another witness said there was a group of youths on the hill with sparklers.
There was "a really loud bang" and then the fire started.
"It spread quite quickly".
Senior Station Officer Toby Kerr told the Herald at the scene: "It was quite visible from all over Auckland. There were earlier reports of fireworks been let off at the summit, but that's unconfirmed."
He said reports of fireworks were "a concern".
"It's been a busy night and the fine weather leading into Guy Fawkes hasn't helped us.
"We advise people to act responsibly, within safe practices and hopefully do it somewhere around where water is available, not on top of our mountains across Auckland. There isn't a lot of water to help us fight this sort of thing."
He expected a presence at the scene for "quite some time".
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