At a time when many Dunedin fire stations have staff volunteering in Christchurch earthquake operations, seven fires in eight hours in the student quarter stretched the city's firefighting resources to the limit at the weekend.
Willowbank Fire Station attended five of the seven fires, while Dunedin City attended the other two, all of which occurred between 9pm on Saturday and 5am on Sunday.
Willowbank Senior Station Officer Craig Geddes said the majority of the fires were couch fires lit in the Harbour Tce, Dundas St and Castle St North areas of North Dunedin.
The most serious was a fire which engulfed a shed and a couch on Leith St.
Mr Geddes said students had been well behaved since they arrived back in the city last weekend, and firefighters had attended only three couch fires in the past week.
However, their actions this weekend had been "pretty selfish" and "disappointing", considering the country had just had a natural disaster, he said.
"How big a disaster do we need to have for these people to wake up and smell the coffee?
"It's unacceptable. Some of our staff are in Christchurch. Our resources are stretched to the limit.
"Every unnecessary call we get is taxing our staff and resources. It's pretty selfish behaviour.
"We're all for the students coming into town, but to be honest, there's a limit."
Mr Geddes said he hoped the weekend's events were not a sign of things to come from the student quarter this year.
Southern Region Fire Safety Officer Barry Gibson, of Dunedin, said the fire had been deliberately lit and an investigation was being carried out.
Dunedin police were also investigating the incident.
Fire calls
SATURDAY:
9.12pm North Rd, Northeast Valley; bonfire (time at scene: 10min).
9.25pm Harbour Tce/Dundas St; couch fire (10min).
10.40pm Dundas St; couch fire (13min).
11.18pm Castle St North/Dundas St; couch fire (10min).
11.24pm Leith St North; shed and couch fire (1 hr 12min).
SUNDAY:
1.17am Castle St North; couch fire (12min).
5.02am Hyde St; couch fire (10min).
