A French vacationer risked his life by running into a burning building at Harington Point yesterday to rescue as many of his family's belongings as possible.
As flames flowed across the ceiling, Julien Arriaga threw clothing, valuables and smaller items of furniture out the door on to the front lawn.
But in a cruel twist, he got out of the building in time to see the tinder-dry grass catch fire, and then the very items he had managed to rescue went up in smoke.
''So nothing was saved,'' he said.
He and his two young children sobbed as firefighters brought the blaze under control and eventually extinguished it about 1pm.
Mr Arriaga said he and his New Zealand wife Louise Power had refurbished an old sleepout at her parent's Harington Point house during visits from France in recent years.
They spent eight months living in France and the remainder of the year living in the sleepout, where they had recently completed a brand new kitchen.
''The new curtains, the new kitchen, everything is gone. Such a shame. We did all that work.''
Property owners Bob and Mary Laurenson were devastated by the fire, but thankful no-one was hurt.
''The grandchildren were out there earlier, but they'd come in to the main house to play and watch telly,'' Mrs Laurenson said.
''So I'm glad they weren't out there at the time.
''My mother's antique couch was in there. I had a lot of antique stuff in there, but that is all replaceable. People aren't.''
She said she looked out of her kitchen window about 11.30am and noticed smoke coming from the sleepout.
She was amazed how quickly the fire took hold of the building.
St Kilda station officer Ed Oskam said the cause of the blaze had not been determined, but it was possibly an electrical fault.
While the fire was not deemed suspicious, an investigation would be conducted.
Fire appliances from St Kilda, Dunedin City and Portobello attended the blaze.
At its height there were fears the fire might spread into nearby scrub.
Senior Constable Lox Kellas, of Portobello, said conditions were tinder-dry on the Otago Peninsula, and the result could have been very different if the fire brigade had not responded so quickly.
''If we had less luck, it could have been a lot worse. The [volunteers] got here just in the nick of time.''
