Firefighters were called to a burning house in Kelso after it was engulfed by flames about 9.15pm.
Heriot chief fire officer Murray Young said the fire was accidental, caused by a pot of hot oil left on the range.
The occupant, a 26-year-old male dairy farm worker, said he had left the pot on a range element he thought was off.
When he discovered the fire, he raised the alarm from a nearby farm.
The four-bedroom Park Hill Rd house was well ablaze when crews from the Heriot Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived at the scene. The Tapanui Volunteer Fire Brigade was also called in, and firefighters battled the blaze for four hours.
Mr Young said firefighters returned to the house yesterday morning for an hour to dampen hot spots.
Fire risk management officer Stuart Ide said smoke alarms in the house did not have working batteries.
"You must have working smoke alarms - that means regularly replacing the batteries.
"Here we lost a whole house, as it was out in the country and well involved when fire services arrived. If there were working smoke alarms, the fire may have been able to be stopped early."
The warm, dry weather also created a situation where fire could quickly spread - the grass was dry grass and timber on and within houses was also dry.
"Everything is crisp and just waiting to burn."
The 26-year-old occupant of the burnt house was released from Gore Hospital yesterday.
He is believed to have suffered burns to the back of his neck, forearm, and soles of his feet when he returned to the property to try to rescue a motorbike next to the house.
Mr Ide said people should not return to burning properties to rescue belongings. Possessions could be replaced but people could not.
