Charred logs still stand as a blackened monument to the Burnside fire in the timber yard of Peter Chalmers.
They serve as a daily reminder of the massive blaze which one year ago today incinerated about $300,000 worth of his stock.
The Valley Lumber owner has yet to see a single dollar of insurance money or compensation, despite an investigation last year finding the fire was probably caused by an ember blown from the nearby Keep it Clean rendering plant on a baking hot day of strong winds.
But the 62-year-old is confident plant owner the Wallace Group will pay up this year.
''They're dead in the water.
''They wouldn't want to test it in court or anything, it's pretty clear, the fire investigation report.
''It just takes time ... when [my] claim goes in, it has to be dead right.''
The Wallace group did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr Chalmers said despite having to send customers away last winter, his business was getting back to where it was before the fire.
''The fact I've been in business for 35 years, and I haven't been an extravagant man, meant we've been able to get through all right. There's no use getting too wound up about it.''
He also paid tribute to the support of the community and his loyal customers, who were now returning in droves, and recounted one story from the aftermath that stuck with him .
''A bloke walked in here one day after the fire, and he came over and put his hand out, he had 100 bucks.
''I said: 'what's that for, what do you want?'
''He said, 'go out and have yourself a beer and a feed.'
''He didn't even give his name.''
The fire erupted in the late afternoon of Wednesday, January 31, spreading down the hillside from the rendering plant towards Burnside, before incinerating several industrial buildings as Valley Lumber went up in an inferno of 30m flames.
Strong winds blew the fire across the Southern Motorway, sparking spot fires in the nearby suburbs of Concord and Green Island, which had to be knocked down by ground crews or helicopters with monsoon buckets.
Residents from about 100 houses were forced out that evening, but the blaze began to be contained by about 9pm without the loss of any residential properties.
On the afternoon the fire erupted, Concord mother Leagh Bower was in Rotorua when an ember landed in the backyard of her Mulford St home, sparking a fire that destroyed a playhouse, fence, tree and garden, before a helicopter with a monsoon bucket could douse the flames.
Despite the insurance company initially saying there would be no point in filing a claim, she pursued the matter and managed to wrangle a significant payout.
Her sister was looking after the house at the time, and her sister's elder son was so spooked by the fire he had refused to visit the home in its aftermath.
''He was really scared about the whole situation ... we had a whole charred tree and the burned down playhouse and no fence ... he was so distraught he didn't want to come up and visit.''
Down the hill in Burnside that day, principal rural fire officer Graeme Still was one of those running the cutter on the front line, together with Fire and Emergency New Zealand East Otago assistant area commander Craig Geddes.
Mr Still said a perfect storm of conditions conspired to make the area a tinderbox.
''We had a crossover, [meaning] humidity dropped below the temperature. Add wind and that gives you a bad fire day. It was fast and furious, a dynamic situation.''
Firefighters had anticipated the dire conditions and prepared resources accordingly, he said.
''We had helicopters for Africa.''
In his view, there would have been no way to stop the fire spreading downhill from the rendering plant into the lumber yard once it ignited, and a single ember touching the bone-dry fuel ''was the end of it.''
Events like the Burnside fire would become more common as climate change took hold, he said.
Scientists at Scion, a crown research institute that focuses on forestry, published a study last year indicating the fire risk in Otago was set to triple.
The number of days when the fire risk was 'very high'' and ''extreme'' near Dunedin would rise by 221% from now to the 2040s, they found.
''I'm a bit of an old school guy ... but I've seen it in the last four to five years, we're getting more of this sort of carry on,'' Mr Still said.
''You can't go past the fact that climate change is upon us.''
