Fire crews have begun work at the Waipara fire to ensure the site is ready to hand back to the landowner tomorrow (6 September).

Incident Commander Brian Keown says to achieve this the crews will concentrate on the remaining hotspots near the fire edge and securing the skid sites.

"We will also have the drone team onsite today ensuring all hotspots are still out, looking for any remaining unidentified hotspots and confirming the fire perimeter."

Weather conditions are favourable for firefighters with light northwest winds and relatively low temperatures. There are 50 Fire and Emergency personnel on site today.

"On behalf of all the firefighters and Incident Management Team we would like to thank the greater Waipara Community for their support, generosity, and assistance over the last week. It’s been incredible," Brian Keown says.

The Canterbury District (north of the Rakaia River to just north of Clarence River) continues to have a prohibition on open air fires under section 52 of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Act 2017 until 11.59pm on Monday 9 September.

This will be the only update today unless there are significant developments. We will provide a final update tomorrow.

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