So when the Wanaka and Luggate Volunteer Fire Brigades were offered some buildings to burn down as a training exercise, it is hardly surprising they went for Saturday rather than World Cup final day.
About 20 recruits with no previous experience of a house fire were ushered through two smoke filled, burning buildings at the Glendhu Bay Lakeside Holiday Park.
In makeshift lecture theatres - the park's old wooden lodge and ablutions block filled with smoke and flames - Fire Service training officers from Dunedin and Invercargill explained how the fire was behaving.
The buildings were complete with old couches and foam mattresses.
Once the lecture was over, the two buildings were burned to the ground, recruits given the task of preventing damage to surround vegetation and to the nearby ''ladies'' building.
Wanaka Fire Chief Bruno Galloway told the Otago Daily Times it was the brigade's first such training exercise for three or four years.
The windows were boarded up to keep the heat in and a gas torch was used to light various fires during the day.
Mr Galloway said sending firefighters into burning buildings was usually the best way of preventing fires spreading from one room to another.
Asbestos cladding on the ablutions block was removed by a specialist crew before the exercise.
Campers at the park were unaware they would have ringside seats for a spectacular pre Guy Fawkes event.
The camp leaseholders Aggie Hofsteenge and Rudi Sanders plan to replace the buildings with three others due to arrive from Christchurch soon.
They expect to be very busy clearing the site and putting in piles over the next few days, and hope to have the facilities operating in time for Christmas.
Mr Sanders said the ''ladies'' building would remain in place until the new building was ready.
