In three words Tauranga City Council's Warren Atkinson sums up what many are feeling following Thursday's fire on Mauao.

'I was gutted.”

The aftermath of Thursday's fire on Mauao in Mount Maunganui. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

'But the biggest thing that goes through my mind is what will it take to return the area back to vegetation, what's the easiest and most economical way to do that,” says the Parks and Environment team leader.

This is the second fire on Mauao that Warren has encountered while employed by council.

He was part of the Facilities and Reserves team, which falls under council's Parks and Environment division, when fire destroyed 16 hectares of vegetation on Mauao back in January 2003.

Once the ash had settled, he was involved with the massive revegetation and replanting effort that followed which was carried out by council and an army of contractors and volunteers.

Warren says this involved months of controlling weeds and preparing sites for planting. In the end, a total of 55,000 plants were planted over the course of two winters.

'The programme occurred during the planting season which is in the winter months, so from April through to September, to give the plants the best possible chance of survival,” he explains.

'Where volunteers could be utilised they were, so a lot of planting of the safer areas was carried out by volunteers. But on the steeper slopes, as with this fire, it will all be done by contractors that were abseiling and connected via harnesses.”

In regards to the 2003 blaze, Warren says it cost roughly $50,000 to put out that fire – while the replanting and revegetation effort that followed cost up to $500,000.

The fire broke out on Mauao at about 12am on Thursday. Photo: Victoria Sardelich-McNutt.

It has been reported Thursday's fire destroyed up to 800sqm of vegetation, but Warren believes it's actually up around the 4,000sqm mark.

'That's actual land area, give or take 1000m2,” he explains. 'If you look at the area on a map, it wouldn't look as extensive, but it's because the face of the mount is quite steep.”

A substantial area of Mauao destroyed this week included some of that revegetation that was planted back in 2003.

While Warren's yet to get up to the site of the fire, he says there were some pohutakawa they had planted around the area.

'Most of the mature trees were not in the immediate area, though they were pretty close. That was one of our main priorities, to save those mature pohutakawa.”

Like in 2003, council will again embark on another replanting and revegetation programme on Mauao.

This programme is likely to begin later in the year as council will first need to assess the extent of the damage and then determine which areas will be able to be replanted.

'We'll be planting a number of species that would have naturally occurred on Mauao because it's important you have the understory as well,” says Warren.

'I imagine we'll plant some pohutakawa but the majority of the vegetation will be regeneration species like flax, pittosporum and coprosma for example.”

He says some time after March, council will update the public with details of the revegetation and replanting programme and how they can get involved.

In the meantime, Warren is asking everyone in the public to stay away from the burned area.

'When all the tracks open we're asking people to stick to the tracks and don't venture into that burned area because rock stability is going to be an ongoing issue.”

Up to 40,000 litres of water was dropped by helicopter to bring Thursday's fire on Mauao under control. Photo: Tracy Hardy