Five helicopters are still battling a blaze which is now covering 100ha of manuka scrub land and beech forest between Te Pohue and Puketitiri.
The Hastings Rural Fire Authority are in control of the fire and have been at the scene along with Bay Forest, Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Fire Service since about 2pm.
Hastings District Council principal rural fire officer Trevor Mitchell said the fire was in an inaccessible area so helicopters had to be used to extinguish the fire.
"Crews are at the scene with tankers filling up the buckets for the helicopters."
Due to the legal use of helicopters in the dark the latest they can run to is about 8pm tonight.