It was a New Year's Day Roxburgh residents will never forget. The fire which raced from Branxholm St up the hill behind the town, destroying a home and burning 40ha of land on Friday brought home memories for firefighters of the wildfires which raged through Springvale and Fruitlands nearly 11 years ago.
In the aftermath of the Roxburgh fire, Roxburgh fire chief David Rooney vividly recalled the earlier wildfires, in February 1999, which burned two homes and 8200ha of land.
"It does bring the whole thing back again, especially for those of us who were involved then, too," he said.
Mr Rooney was the incident controller during Friday's fire and said given the conditions, the outcome could have been "disastrous".
"Although we lost a house, we managed to save the others, in fairly difficult conditions."
A northwest wind was blowing up to 120kmh on Friday evening and it took more than 60 firefighters, assisted by seven helicopters, six carrying monsoon buckets, three hours to get the blaze under control.
"Right by the fire front were stands of gum trees that could've just exploded if they went on fire, and pine trees, too.
It could've been far worse than it was."
A downpour of about 2-3mm of rain at 11pm was "manna from heaven", he said.
Mr Rooney said the cost of the fire had yet to be tallied but would be "untold thousands of dollars".
It was treated as an urban fire, rather than a rural one, as it was within the town boundaries.
Fire authorities had yet to determine the cause.
Those who raised the alarm told the Otago Daily Times they believed the fire started from sparks when power lines near their home were blown together in the high winds.
Janice Ratima, of Branxholm St, said her children called out when she was in the shower, to say there was a fire about 10m from their home.
Her partner had noticed the fire and her daughter had phoned the emergency services.
"I quickly got dressed, the kids grabbed the cat, we moved the car off the fire hydrant and got out of there. It was scary stuff," Miss Ratima said.
Fire crews worked through the night on Friday.
Helicopters were stood down about 1am and resumed work, dousing hot spots, at daybreak on Saturday.
By late afternoon Saturday, the fire crews were stood down, although the area was still being monitored for deep-seated hot spots yesterday.
The Roxburgh Fire Brigade volunteers started New Year's Day early with a call to Coal Creek for a minor fire at 5am.
Power, television and cell phone services were all affected, as a couple of power poles, some cables, and the television and Vodafone cell phone repeater station at the top of the hill were damaged by the fire.
Electricity was cut for a short time on Friday night and residents trying to use Vodafone cell phones or tune in to TV3 were unable to access those services on Saturday.
National Rural Fire Authority rural fire officer Murray Dudfield said two major wildfires in Central Otago in the past week highlighted the elevated fire danger in the area, which was being monitored daily.
"Conditions are so dry that days when there's hot temperatures, low humidity and strong winds, the risk quickly goes into the extreme category."
A few light falls of rain had done little to ease concerns, Mr Dudfield said.
"It's not boding well going into the part of the year that is traditionally the driest - late January and February."
Mr Dudfield said Central Otago people needed to take extra care and be aware that hot exhausts on vehicles resting against dry vegetation or sparks from mowers hitting stones could easily start fires in tinder-dry conditions.
