Fire and Emergency New Zealand incident controller Mark Mawhinney yesterday confirmed the investigation was complete, but said he had no further details.
Four ground crews and three helicopters with monsoon buckets continued to search for hot spots across the face of the hill yesterday.
"We’re reasonably confident the perimeter of the fire is nice and cold now, but there’s just a bit more focus on the inside where there is a lot of residual heat from the fallen trees," Mr Mawhinney said.
A two-person crew monitoring the site reported late last night there had been a fresh outbreak of fire high on the hillside but no further details were available. Fire officers were to check the perimeter for hot spots this morning, using an infrared camera.
The fire, which started about 3pm on Wednesday afternoon, burnt 199ha of hill country pasture at Hillend station. The cost of fighting the fire has been estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Volunteer fire crews from the Central Lakes district, Southland and Mt Cook, together with helicopters during daylight hours, fought the blaze through Wednesday and Thursday.
Hillend station manager Mike Scurr said he was "very thankful" for the excellent work done by the fire officers and the community, which, he said, appeared to understood the seriousness of the fire and "got in behind the guys doing the work".
If a larger area of farmland had been burnt it would have compromised the station’s ability to continue with its seasonal programme.
The intention had been to put breeding ewes on the affected section of hill country pasture after weaning at the end of this month, but they were now investigating plans for grazing elsewhere, or reducing the number of stock.
Controlled and managed spring burn-offs in previous years had probably aided the firefighters in their ability to control the fire, but it would be two years before the burnt pasture would back into full production. Mr Mawhinney said firefighters were "very lucky", as the weather conditions were quite mild.
"If it had been a windy day I hate to think where we’d be now."
"We need to get the message out to the public to be a bit more careful about what they do as lawn mowers, or even model aircraft, can cause a spark.
"In the extreme weather we have had this summer, a small fire can spread so quickly."
