The house suffered some fire damage but sheds and other structures on it and neighbouring properties were destroyed.
Jenny Simmons said her parents bought the Springvale Rd property in 1992 and she lived there until about two years ago.
‘‘Words can’t explain it,’’ she said as she looked at the scorched earth around the site.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) crews were called to the blaze in the Springvale area near Clyde about 3.30pm on Wednesday.
Firefighters were supported by four helicopters and managed to ‘‘contain and largely suppress’’ the blaze by nightfall.
It was believed the fire began as a grass fire.
Yesterday, Fenz senior adviser risk reduction Scottie Cameron said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
The fire had crossed Springvale Rd and was stopped from spreading further by an irrigation dam, he said.
‘‘It was fortunate.’’
One house was fire-damaged and multiple small structures were involved, he said.
Ms Simmons said it brought back memories of the fire that swept around Alexandra in 1999.
Reports from the time said that fire travelled 5km in 30 minutes in the vicinity of Springvale.
A monsoon bucket of water from the dam saved the house during that fire, Ms Simmons said.
‘‘Someone was pulling a monsoon bucket over here and just sprinkled it around the back of the house.
‘‘My mother for years spoke about some stupid helicopter pilot who pruned her apple tree at the back because where he dropped it, it broke an apple tree. But the apple tree lived on too.’’
The house was built in the 1970s by an American couple and was in part made of American cedar. They had planted more than 70 varieties of trees on the 4ha site, Ms Simmons said.
During her time on the property a lot of native trees were planted and yesterday it looked like some, including cabbage trees, had survived the inferno that passed through them, she said.
