Although winds yesterday afternoon extended the fire area, the cooler temperatures meant two five-man ground crews were finally able to move into the fire area.
The blaze has ripped through more than 820ha of Wenita Forestry land in the company's Mt Allan Block.
Two suspicious fires in a Wenita Forest block at Kaitangata early yesterday, put extra pressure on firefighters as crews that had been fighting the Mt Allan fire during the day were sent south to help put out the blaze.
Dunedin City Council civil defence and rural fire manager Neil Brown said firefighter crews were "pretty much" holding the fire yesterday.
"[The fire's incident controller] is not yet prepared to say it is contained, but is optimistic they can hold it from spreading."
Dunedin City Council principal rural firefighter Graeme Still said he planned to mount a big ground-based operation today and would split the more than 40 firefighters into eight crews.
Some would work with helicopter pilots and others would use bulldozers and diggers to open up ground on the fire's most active front so that the water could penetrate to burning roots and other material.
The blaze, which has resulted in the evacuation of five houses, began on Tuesday and is believed to have been started by logging machinery.
Mr Brown said while 10 helicopters and a fixed-wing aircraft were still working on the fire during the day yesterday, ground crews had started work pushing the fire back from the perimeter and dampening down hot spots.
One of their priorities had been keeping the fire from Dunedin's water catchment area.
The National Incident team arrived yesterday and started assisting local crews staffing the emergency command vehicle.
The fire was to be monitored overnight, with a helicopter on stand-by for any flare-ups.
The formal fire investigation into the cause - the how, not the who - had begun.
The situation of those evacuated would be reviewed today.
Taieri Gorge Railway chief executive Murray Bond said the business lost some customers yesterday because the excursion train visited Palmerston, rather than travelling through the fire-affected area to Pukerangi.
He said if the business was not given the all-clear today, there was a possibility the 200 passengers from the cruise ship Saga Ruby "could cancel".
Taieri Gorge staff checked the tracks yesterday and confirmed they were not damaged, but they were waiting for the all-clear from fire authorities before they attempted the trip.
Another person waiting to hear from authorities was John Garraway, who owns the 100-year-old railway cottage, Parera, near Mt Allan.
His family has owned the cottage since the 1930s.
Mr Garraway, who is in his 80s, said he had owned the house on railway-leased land for half a century, and used it as a regular holiday spot.
However, he has been unable to gain access to the property since Tuesday's fire, the area being strictly off-limits as firefighters battled the blaze, which came perilously close to the cottage.
"It has a lot of history, and I am sure it will be OK."
Mr Garraway recalled in the 1940s watching as farmers burnt off the gorse and broom each spring, but this was the biggest fire in the area he could remember.
