Firefighters and helicopters work to control scrub fire in South Auckland

Three helicopters with monsoon buckets were trying to slow the spread of a scrub fire near Clevedon, around 2.30pm on Wednesday afternoon, says Stuff. Daniel Nicholson, a spokesman for Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz), said they received a 111 call just after 11am, to attend a bush fire in the Ness Valley. Due to the conditions, a helicopter initially had to assess the scale of the fire. Nicholson said the fire was burning through pine trees and native bush but there was no risk to any properties in the area.