Despite light southerly rain yesterday afternoon, the fire risk in Wakatipu will revert to "high" or "very high" status by the weekend, rural fire monitors predict.
"One day's rain doesn't break a drought and we need more than a few days of rain before we can let our guard down," Queenstown Lakes district rural fire officer Gordon Bailey said yesterday.
Wakatipu's fire risk status was expected to be "moderate" to "very high" today after being "very high" and "extreme" on Monday.
Mr Bailey said the district had been so dry that ignition sources such as discarded cigarette butts, cars backfiring, sparks from mower blades and tractor engines could light the vegetation like a piece of paper.
"People need to be extra-vigilant and call 111, so we can get some water on [a fire]."
Residents needed to keep their eyes and ears open and warn overseas people of the risk, as a lot of overseas people did not realise how dry the environment was.
Department of Conservation (Doc) Wakatipu rural fire officer Jamie Cowan said 20mm of rain was needed to make any difference to medium to heavy fuel, such as logs and branches.
Yesterday's rain would drop the fire risk to "moderate" for one or two days, but forecast high winds and dry weather would soon dry out fine fuel, including grasses, twigs and seeds, "and we're back to square one - elevated fire risk".
In its weekly update on Monday, the department advised the "red zone group" the fire risk in Wakatipu was "high".
The group includes all fire wardens from Bob's Cove to Arthur's Pt and firefighters, as well as Doc and council rural fire officers and helicopter operators.
Mr Cowan said Doc rural fire officers had been on stand-by for 24 hours, seven days a week for the past six to eight weeks, while the risk was high.
The department and the council had decided not to officially implement a prohibited fire season, as it was now late summer, but all the controls imposed by a ban were in place and no fire permits had been issued since Christmas.
No fire permits would be issued until further notice, Mr Cowan said.
