About 30,000 Northland properties lost power this afternoon, after electricity transmission lines were shut down to protect fire crews and helicopters fighting a large scrub fire south of Whangarei.
Transpower says the fire has been brought under control and the lines are back in service.
Earlier, a Transpower spokesperson said the fire on Holland Road, south of Whangarei, was directly under the transmission lines.
The power was initially turned off from Kaikohe northwards, in order to protect fire crews and helicopters fighting the blaze.
We have de-energised lines feeding the Upper North Island to allow firefighters to safely battle a scrub fire.
— Transpower NZ (@TranspowerNZ) February 5, 2017
The fire has been bought under control and power restored to the transmission network, said Transpower in a statement.
However, the statement said that with an outage of this size it would take some further time for Top Energy to progressively restore power to its network.
All residents were expected to have power restored by 8pm.
Eleven fire trucks, three helicopters and about 40 firefighters worked to contain the fire, which was close to large power pylons, said fire shift manager Megan Ruru.
