The vegetation fire burning 25km south of Queenstown over the last six days now appears to be out, QLDC principal rural fire chief Gordon Bailey said.

"Nature has been kind to us and the area received a good soaking of rain overnight," Mr Bailey said.

Thermal imaging equipment was flown over most of the fire zone this morning, confirming no remaining hotspots.

"Unfortunately low cloud has meant we have not been able to cover all areas but we are relatively confident the fire is now extinguished," Mr Bailey said.

The National Incident Management team had headed home and crews were also able to be stood down this afternoon.

"The next phase will involve ongoing monitoring of the zone and we still have crews on standby," Mr Bailey said.

The cost of the fire had yet to be fully calculated.

"Clearly the costs will be in the area of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The council will be making an application to the National Rural Fire Fund and an investigation is ongoing," Mr Bailey said.

A formal fire investigator had inspected the site and would endeavour to determine the original cause of the fire.

"It will be at least a week, before we will know more but obviously if we can determine a cause then we will want to look at the issue of cost recovery," Mr Bailey said.

The council would still like to hear from anyone that was travelling on the Kingston highway on the afternoon of Sunday, March 16 between 2-6pm, who had information that could assist the investigation.

ENDS

For further information please contact Gordon Bailey 0274 423 126.

By: Tamah