A one-bedroom dairy worker's unit on a farm at Georgetown, near Oamaru, has been damaged by smoke and fire despite the efforts of 12 firefighters with two units from Oamaru and a unit and tanker from Duntroon fire brigades.
No-one was in the cottage on Ngapara-Georgetown Rd when a dairy worker saw smoke coming from it and called the fire brigade about 2.45pm.
Duntroon Chief Fire Officer Dave Eckhold said just after the brigade arrived, flames broke out.
The worst of the damage was confined to the bedroom, where the fire started. However, the open-plan living-kitchen area and bathroom suffered smoke damage.
The fire was out and dampened down after about two hours. Its cause was not known late yesterday.
