UPDATED: 5.25PM: Te Puna Road will be closed off to traffic while firefighters deal with a shelterbelt fire in Te Puna this evening.

Northern Fire Communications shift manager Jarron Phillips says one crew is currently at the scene of the fire, which measures roughly 50m long by about 8m high, and is about 300m down Te Puna Road from the intersection with State Highway 2.

'We have another a crew from Greerton and a tanker from Tauranga currently making their way to the scene.

'The fire is well involved and is threatening powerline which is why we've requested police to close the road down to traffic.”

Jarron says at this stage it didn't appear as if any properties were being threatened by the fire.

A witness at the scene says he was driving down Te Puna Road when he saw the flames at about 4.45pm.

'I thought it was a scrub fire to start with, but when I saw it was the shelterbelt on fire I was just like ‘wow, that's bloody huge.

'The fire was getting pretty close to a transformer which is pretty worrying. I rung the fire brigade and they said they'd had a few people call it in.

'It's pretty big and going in both directions. It look like it started in the middle of the shelterbelt, but the winds are fanning it more towards Tauranga than Katikati.”

The witness says a nearby orchard appeared unaffected by the fire.

EARLIER:

Firefighters are currently dealing with a shelterbelt fire in Te Puna.

A caller to the 0800 SUNLIVE news hotline says the hedge fire is about 300m down Te Puna Road from State Highway 2 and was roughly 50m in length.

SunLive will bring you more information soon