A burn-off at a North Otago property that started to spread inland from Oamaru on Sunday took firefighters almost 90 minutes to bring under control.
A crew from the Glenavy Volunteer Fire Brigade was called to a rural property in Peebles Siding Rd, near Peebles, about 21km northwest of Oamaru, shortly before 5pm.
Glenavy Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Wayne Direen said the blaze started after slash that was being burned as part of a controlled burn was fanned by a wind shift and, as a result, started to spread and ignited some nearby grass and discarded wood.
While the fire burned close to a fence that surrounded a nearby pond, the fence was not damaged.
No buildings or other infrastructure were threatened by the blaze, CFO Direen said.
An appliance and tanker were at the scene for about 90 minutes, he said.
"It wasn't large, but it just took a bit of dampening down because there was a bit of old wood and whatnot around, so they had to make sure it was completely out around and underneath all that sort of rubbish.''
An appliance from the Oamaru Volunteer Fire Brigade was stood down when it arrived at the scene, and a tanker from the Weston Volunteer Fire Brigade was turned back while on the way.
Meanwhile in Central Otago, a fire near the Poolburn reservoir was extinguished by Central Otago fire crews yesterday.
The fire, which had started on Sunday afternoon, burnt about 1ha of "scrubby grassland'', a Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman said.
Ground crews attended the fire on Sunday, a crew remained on standby that night and other crews returned yesterday morning and a helicopter was also brought in.
The fire was extinguished about 10.45am yesterday. The cause of the fire was not known.
Firefighters were also called to what was initially thought to be a rural fire, near Butcher's Dam, at 1.45pm yesterday.
The fire ended up being a controlled burn-off, but members of the public were encouraged to keep phoning 111 if they saw smoke, a Fenz spokesman said.
It was better for firefighters to be turned back from a fire that was not an emergency, than not have a genuine emergency reported, he said.
