Thousands of dollars were also spent on putting helicopters equipped with monsoon buckets on stand-by, to fight vegetation fires across Otago.
But principal rural fire officer Graeme Still said it was money well spent.
Mr Still said fire managers across the region decided to put helicopters on stand-by on January 30 and 31, to fight fires at a moment’s notice because ground conditions were tinder dry and temperatures were expected to "spike".
"We were aware that it was going to cause us some grief if we had an outbreak of fire.
"The conditions were so dry, we knew that if we had an event, we needed something that could respond as soon as possible.
"As it turned out, that’s what happened with the Burnside fire.
"It saved us quite a bit of grief because we had more than one ignition that day."
There were also fires in the Catlins, Clutha and at Karitane.
Mr Still said four helicopters were on stand-by — one each at Dunedin, Clyde, Ranfurly and Balclutha.
Others joined in the firefighting, as and when they became available.
Oamaru did not have one on stand-by because the fire danger level was lower than Dunedin’s and Central Otago’s.
"It was best practice.
"It’s better to be proactive than reactive.
"We’re quite pleased that we put those processes in place. It was money well spent.
"It could have been a lot worse if we didn’t get on top of it so quickly."
Mr Still declined to say precisely how much the bill for the helicopters was, but expected the cost of helicopters fighting the Burnside fire alone, to be more than $100,000.
He said it was a different rate to have helicopters on stand-by, and the cost of those would be "thousands of dollars".
Both bills would be paid by Fire and Emergency New Zealand, he said.
• A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman said fire investigators searching for the cause of the 25ha Burnside fire, expected to release their findings next week.
