Cooler temperatures and more settled weather are aiding firefighters to fully extinguish the vegetation fire at Pukaki Downs, near Twizel.

Fire and Emergency crews responded to the fire at around 8pm last Wednesday (September 20). 

Heavy machinery and monsoon buckets will assist ground crews, later in the day, to work on several identified hotspots from a Sunday evening infrared fly over.

Firefighters on the ground today (Tuesday) are from Cave, Cannington, Peel Forest and Burkes Pass Brigades, assisted by Department of Conservation crews.

Following accurate mapping, the fire size has been confirmed as 2900 hectares, with an approximate perimeter of 38 kilometres. 

The area will be reflown this evening with infrared thermal imaging to identify any remaining hot spots.

Snowfall across the Mackenzie District at the weekend helped extinguish a large area of the fire, Fire and Emergency New Zealand incident controller Stephen Butler said.