"The scene pretty much looked like a bomb had exploded, both with where the tanker had hit the corner of the house and obviously where the two vehicles impacted on the hill," Edendale Chief Fire Officer Brent Shepard said.
CFO Shepard said the fact the truck driver and the occupants of the house walked away was nothing short of a miracle.
"It just shows how lucky they were. I said to both lots of people that they probably need to look at buying a Lotto ticket because luck was on their side last night."
The Fonterra tanker collided with a car on Edendale Hill on State Highway 1 about 10.20pm on Monday, before swerving off the road, through a paddock and into the house.
The driver of the car died in the crash, but the truck driver sustained only minor injuries. The five occupants of the house were unharmed. They declined requests for an interview yesterday.
Six fatal crashes have occurred on the stretch of SH1 between Edendale and Dacre in the past 20 years.
"There’s certainly a lot of cars that run off the road ... a lot of fatal crashes."
The tanker was approaching the Fonterra plant in Edendale from the south before the crash.
It had to be emptied of 50 tonnes of milk before it was removed from the site, contractors using a towing truck and a tractor to extract the tanker in a lengthy operation.
The car involved in the crash had been taken away by 10am yesterday.
Fonterra national transport and logistics general manager Paul Phillips said in a statement that the company was supporting those affected.
"Our driver has minor injuries and we are providing him support. We are supporting the family who owned the home that was damaged."
Fonterra senior media relations manager Henry Acland said the truck was badly damaged.
The north-bound lane was closed while the serious crash unit investigated the accident.
The road was scheduled to reopen late yesterday afternoon. — Additional reporting Laine Priestley
