The fire broke out shortly before 4am on Otago Anniversary Day in the rear property in Totara Terrace. Neighbours raised the alarm and volunteer firefighting crews from Wanaka, Lake Hawea, Alexandra and Luggate attended.
Four adults and seven children and their dogs escaped the blaze except for one hunting dog who died.
Wanaka skate club vicepresident Wayne Pretty said the idea about helping began the day after the fire because many of the children involved were skaters.
They organised a fundraising event at the Wanaka Skate Park last Sunday.
‘‘It started off as a sausage sizzle and now it has gone into a larger thing, a lot of businesses have donated stuff [including] $500 of gift vouchers.’’
The skateboard club donated free skateboards and helmets to the children, and they organised the event including a bouncy castle as a way of cheering up the children after the worries of the fire.
‘‘More and more people wanted to come down and we ended up have three bands playing, ’’ he said.
The fundraising event raised $1500 for the affected families.
Property owner Kylie Stewart said the Wanaka Skate Club had been their saviour and they continued to be overwhelmed with support from the Wanaka community.
‘‘We have had a family give us a house to live in, my sister has given us a car, and we have not had to worry about food and clothing yet as they [the community] have come to our need without even asking.’’
Ms Stewart said she planned to rebuild but the money from insurance meant it would be ‘‘pretty tight’’.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand fire risk management officer John Smalls said fire investigators began sifting through the remains on Wednesday and found the cause of the fire was a lithium ion battery exploding in a lean-to attached to the garage at the rear property.
Mr Smalls said the battery would have exploded with quite a high intensity and set fire to the plastics around where it was charging.
He believed it could have been a power tool battery that was being charged.
‘‘The occupant had not done anything wrong,’’ he said.
It was fairly common for people to leave their batteries on charge overnight but they needed to be treated with care, he said.
Fenz recommended smoke detectors in the bedroom, hallway and living rooms where possible and in high dust or smoke areas (such as the kitchen or garage) domestic heat detectors could be useful, he said.
However, negating a likely cause of fire was the best prevention, he said.
‘‘Smoke detectors are only there as a backup in case things go wrong.
‘‘You don’t want to be doing silly things and depending on the smoke detectors to save you — it does not work like that,’’ he said.
