Much of Otago is under a strong wind watch today, with a moderate chance of that watch turning into a warning.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand community fire risk manager James Knapp said this raised the risk of an out-of-control vegetation fire tenfold.
He said a fire in St Bathans earlier this month was an example of what should not happen.
On August 16, Central Otago firefighters fought a hard-to-access and out-of-control vegetation fire that was spewing smoke on to nearby properties.
"This was the result of an escaped burn pile — they went on to some ground, piled up a bunch of stuff, set it on fire.
"Then a bit of wind came along, embers flew, and it’s right into the vegetation."
He said usually farmers were "pretty good", and mistakes happened, but some burns were "just unnecessary".
Nobody should be doing burn-offs today, he said.
"This time of the year is an open fire season, it’s kind of springish, so people think because it’s late winter or spring, that there’s low fire risk ... generally that is true."
However, he said this time of year it was common for something called "frost curing" to occur — where overnight and morning frosted vegetation was hit with daytime sun and was dried out.
When mixed with a warmer northwest wind and a reduction of humidity in the air, the environment became extremely susceptible to burning.
"Don’t light a fire today ... and if you burnt anything yesterday or earlier this week, you really need to go out and check it and not assume that something has just burnt out."
People could access online resources and should check the weather forecast before thinking of starting a fire.
"It is an offence to let a fire get out of control and to spread — we just expect people to do their very best."
