The welcome mat remains out on a farm near Middlemarch to the soldiers who accidentally started a fire on a windy night.
Middlemarch Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer John Foote said his brigade responded to a vegetation fire at Rocklands Station on September 15.
The fire started as a result of soldiers firing a tracer bullet.
"It was not the smartest thing to do on that particular night. It was blowing quite a gale.''
About 40 soldiers on the station were part of a live field-firing exercise by Southern Army Reserve soldiers of Bravo Company, 2/4 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.
Due to an access issue, the brigade could get within only 1km of the "spectacular'' fire.
The operation was passed on to the rural division of Fire Emergency New Zealand but the soldiers extinguished the blaze.
Rocklands Station manager Mathew Middlemass said the fire was 600m long and 300m wide and destroyed tussock.
He held no grudge against the soldiers for starting the fire, which was a "freak accident''.
"They put in a massive effort to get it out ... They probably shouldn't have fired a tracer but it's easy to say that now.''
Mr Middlemass said he would happily let the soldiers return to the station to train.
In an email on Tuesday, a New Zealand Defence Force spokeswoman said the NZDF carefully considered "environmental influences'' during any training activity.
"Unfortunately, oversights in this case resulted in a fire to the property.
"Following this incident, an investigation has been conducted and we have revised our procedures to include reiterating the responsibilities of command and control, revision of on-site risk assessment and the revision of the communications plan both during planning for and the conduct of field live firing activities.''
SHAWN.MCAVINUE @thestar.co.nz
