"Have plenty of appropriate fire extinguishers."
James Dicey had been welding at his Bannockburn property on Saturday of Labour weekend. He finished up and had made sure everything was safe.
He walked to his nearby home and as he sat in the lounge to have a drink he thought he saw dust behind the shed but then saw flames.
He ran back to the shed and phoned for the fire brigade.
Two factors prevented the fire being much worse, Mr Dicey said.
He had plenty of fire extinguishers on hand and a 2000 litre plastic water tank.
The tank collapsed, dumping its contents on two rubbish containers.
The building, which also housing Mr Dicey’s wine library — bottles he had been collecting since 2005 and some of his own wine — was engulfed.
It was lined with polystyrene and once it caught fire there was no putting it out.
The collection was worth between $15,000-20,000 but much of it could not be replaced at any cost, he said.
"It was pretty heartbreaking."
Yesterday, as the damaged plastic tank was taken away, he had been tasting the wine.
It was undrinkable as it had effectively "cooked" in the bottles and they would be going to the recycling centre.
The Cromwell Fire Brigade had done a fantastic job and were on site in minutes, Mr Dicey said.
He had always thought the property’s 30,000-litre water supply would be a suitable back up in case of a house fire but discovered it was actually too far away to be useful there.
He planned to install a fire standpipe connected to their water supply nearer the house.
He had also bought $1000 worth of fire extinguishers and fire blankets.
In rural areas containment rather than saving a building was the best firefighters could hope to do.
It was important home owners had enough extinguishers and water on hand to contain a fire on their property until help arrived, Mr Dicey said.