Firefighters across Otago were kept busy early yesterday by a spate of fires.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand southern communications shift manager Lyn Crosson said crews from Lawrence and Millers Flat were called about 1am to a flaming car on the Beaumont Highway (State Highway 8).
The car had possibly been left on the highway for a couple of days before apparently being set alight, and the incident had been passed on to police, she said.
A few hours later, about 5.45am in Cromwell's Orient St, Fenz received another callout.
''It turned out to be hot ashes in a wheelie bin against a garage, which is a wee reminder for everybody to think very carefully when they dispose of hot ashes, because they do stay hot for so long,'' Ms Crosson said.
The fire spread to the external wall of the garage but the Cromwell brigade had no trouble extinguishing the blaze.
Just after 7am, St Kilda and Lookout Point crews in Dunedin responded to reports of a kitchen fire in David St, Caversham, but were able to quickly extinguish the blaze before it spread.
