A fire investigator has been called in after a house was destroyed in a blaze in Waitati, north of Dunedin early today.
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said crews were alerted to the fire, in Short St, around 4.30am.
Crews arrived to find the small house "well-involved" with fire.
The blaze was extinguished after about an hour, the spokesman said, but the house had been "pretty much" destroyed.
The cause had yet to be determined and a fire investigator had been called in.
The house was thought to have been unoccupied at the time, he said.
