Fire Service resources in the Queenstown area were stretched during a rash of call-outs in the space of 90 minutes on Thursday.
An appliance was placed on standby at Queenstown Airport about 3pm during the search for a helicopter that crashed in the Lochy River valley, killing two men.
About 20 minutes earlier, two Queenstown appliances and one from Glenorchy attended a crash on the Queenstown-Glenorchy road in which a Chinese tourist drove into Lake Wakatipu.
One of the three occupants of the car was taken to Lakes District Hospital for treatment and later discharged.
The driver, a 33-year-old female Chinese national, has been charged with dangerous driving after losing control of the rental car on a corner and driving off the road into the lake.
Another fire crew attended a false alarm in Arrowtown about 2pm.
Queenstown Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Terry O'Connell said it was unusual to have so many incidents in such a short time, but it was ''within the capabilities of what we've got''.
When resources were stretched in one area, the Fire Service's control centre ''shuffled them around''.
For example, if there was a major incident in Queenstown that used all the area's resources, crews would be brought from other centres such as Cromwell, Alexandra, Luggate and Wanaka.
