Steady rain has been falling on the Mt Creighton fireground near Queenstown since late this afternoon, and firefighting activities have been suspended.

Fire and Emergency Incident Controller Mark Mawhinney says helicopters were stood down due to high winds at 4pm and ground crews had withdrawn by 5pm.

Earlier, good progress had been made extinguishing the 13 hotspots that had been identified by thermal imaging this morning. There have been no signs of flare ups today and the rain is mitigating the risks caused by the wind this evening.

Mr Mawhinney says Fire and Emergency will be monitoring the site tomorrow but do not plan to have crews on the ground. After the rain, conditions would be too slippery for firefighters to work safely on the steep slopes.

Another thermal imaging flight is likely in the next 48 hours to assess whether the rain has finished what the ground crews and waterbombers began today, and extinguished the remaining hotspots.

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