A Fire-fighters Farewell.

The family of veteran firefighter Derek Lovell, killed when a Hamilton coolstore exploded on Saturday, is working with fire officials on how he is to be farewelled.

A funeral to honour and commemorate Mr Lovell's life was expected to be held on Friday, Waikato fire region deputy commander Roy Breeze told reporters in Hamilton today.

"Firefighters close to the family will work with the family to find out what their needs are, which is the most important thing to us."

Of the firemen who remained hospitalised from the fire Merv Neil was the most critical, with 71 per cent burns to his body, Mr Breeze said.

He was to today have further surgery in Middlemore Hospital, South Auckland.

While he was making progress the nature of his injuries meant it was difficult to know how his recovery would go, Mr Breeze said.

Brian Halford remained in critical condition in intensive care unit at Waikato Hospital.

Dennis Wells, Adrian Brown and Alvin Walker were all recovering and had been downgraded from the high dependency unit at Waikato Hospital.

Dave Beanland was also recovering well at the hospital's open ward, he said.

Mr Breeze said fire safety officers, insurance assessors and staff from Environment Waikato met at the site of the fire this morning to determine how to move forward.

"They will be discussing whether heavy machinery will be bought in to open it up so we can extinguish it properly."

The fire was still burning and decisions needed to be made as to how best to put it out, he said.

"One of the problems is that we simply can't get into one of the areas that's burning."

It was a large area and crews had worked throughout the night spraying it to keep it under control, he said.

"Our main priority is to just reduce the smoke levels for the neighbours."

Mr Breeze said firefighters were only just starting to come to grips with the fire and death of a friend and colleague.

"We're just trying really hard to work out where we go from here."

The response from the community had been fantastic, Mr Breeze said.

"We're quite a tight knit group and I'm confident everyone's going to look after each other."

The public could help, he said.

"Just be careful for a while, we'd prefer not to have to come out to you."

Mr Breeze said firefighters coped with the situation because that was their job.

"One of skills of being an emergency worker is to be able to cut off the emotion and treat it like a procedural thing."

Counselling was being offered to all staff and firefighters and the families of those injured, he said.

In an emotional tribute, recruits from the National Training Centre - due to graduate on Thursday - paid a minute's silence outside the station this morning, many choking back tears.