A specialist team of Kiwi firefighters have flown out to Hobart to support Australian emergency services as they tackle several large bushfires in Tasmania, with more scheduled to depart Wednesday.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand national manager rural operations John Rasmussen said the fires had started after about 4000 lightning strikes hit the area.
There are 39 separate fires currently burning. Fifteen are under control, but there are 11 unmapped fires which teams have been unable to reach yet.
"They'll be in wilderness areas and they actually haven't got to them yet and mapped what exactly where they are and what they can do about them," Rasmussen said.
Nigel Dravitzki is going over to help with the Aussie bushfires.
An estimated 20,000 hectares have already burnt in the Central Plateau area, near the Gell river in Southwest Tasmania.
In the Great Pines area, another 5000 hectares have been lost. A particular effort has been made in the Central Plateau due to the presence of several endangered plant species.
Apart from local Tasmanian firefighters, there were also 111 personnel from other Australian states on the ground, and 38 aircraft in action as they tried to contain the blazes.
"The major concern is for Thursday afternoon and Friday. They've predicted temperatures in the high 30s and 40s degrees Celsius, with strong northerlies upwards of 100kmh, and no forecast rain, and dry lightning may be possible as well," Rasmussen said.
"Things are going to get worse before they get better. It's going to be difficult for them.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand national liason Nigel Dravitzki.
"It's a dangerous occupation, but health and safety and wellbeing is one of the highest priorities. They're working in hot temperatures in very remote areas. Certainly there's danger involved in rural firefighting, but we'll try to mitigate as much of the risk as we possibly can."
The first Kiwi team was made up of seven aircraft management and operations experts. Twenty-one frontline firefighters will follow on Wednesday.
The second team is made up of Fire and Emergency New Zealand staff, but they also called upon their partners in the Department of Conservation and several New Zealand forestry companies due to their specialist expertise in forest fires.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand national liason Nigel Dravitzki, who will be taking on an operations role in Tasmania, spoke to Stuff shortly before boarding his flight from Auckland International Airport.
He said New Zealand firefighters coming to the aid of other countries was "the Kiwi thing to do".
"I think it's a bit of the Anzac feel about it in regards to when a request for assistance comes, it's the Kiwi thing to do, to go and provide that. Fire and Emergency New Zealand are well set up and well training for offer that assistance so across the Tasman and up in to the northern hemisphere if required. It's good the be able to go over and out guys to use their skills and hone their skills in a live fire environment."
He had previously been based in Tasmania for a month in 2016, and had also been deployed to Victoria and Canada for other fires.
"[My family] are doing well, they're semi-used to Dad being deployed somewhere at short notice."