The remainder of today looms as a crucial day for firefighters battling the blaze in the Tasman District, near Nelson, with a poor forecast for tomorrow concerning fire chiefs.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand incident controller John Sutton told evacuated Pigeon Valley residents that losing one home in the area was an achievement for crews.
"From what I saw where the fires have gone right up to the houses, even the paint's blistered yet the houses are still there," he said.
The fire covers almost 2000ha, with a 20km perimeter, and there’s no sign of it slowing down yet.
"Yes, we lost one (house) but I have to put it into perspective, there’s an enormous amount of great work that was done, in the previous day, the fire activity that was occurring when that fire ran, there was nothing humans could do."
"We certainly do not put firefighters in that situation in front of those types of fires."
Mr Sutton said the more than 100 firefighters on the ground had to take advantage of today’s still conditions to get the Pigeon Valley fire, which is still technically out-of-control, under control.
Stewart Mitchell said the smoke was so intense it sent animals running from the fire.
Containment is officially when there is no active burning within 30m of the perimeter, which is 22km long.
"We have to make use of what’s given to us and yesterday was a great day, we made some really good inroads putting out fire around the perimeter."
"Officially we still have to call this fire as out of control because we have not got the containment line around the entire fire.”
The Prime Minister says she is sure that “everything that can be done is being done.”
"I’m hoping that by the end of the day we‘ll be in a lot better position because we have to look to the future, the forecast for tomorrow is not good for firefighting, as you probably appreciate, wind is our enemy, wind is what transfers fire."
Twenty-two helicopters and two fixed-wing aircraft with a third on the way will aid in the firefighting effort.
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