And in an ironic twist of fate, the exhausted fire chief arrived back to his own home in the early hours of Tuesday to find his way blocked by a fallen tree on his drive.
"I'm off to clear that now," he said.
The hard work had begun for the Dannevirke Volunteer Fire Brigade when firefighters were called to a shed fire at Umutaoroa at 11am on Monday, but Mr Sinclair said the shed was on the ground by the time they arrived.
"The shed had caught fire when ashes from a previous rubbish fire, which had been out for a week, were stirred up again by the very, very strong winds," he said. "Embers also blew into adjacent pine trees and it took brigade members two hours to get the fire under control. "We're lucky the fire hadn't got up high into the trees because that would have made it so much harder to extinguish," he said. "It's hard when you're trying to squirt water up into trees and the wind is blowing it away."
Owners of the property weren't home at the time of the fire and the alarm had been raised by a neighbour who had seen smoke and drove down the road to investigate.
At 1pm the Dannevirke brigade was called to Top Grass Rd when power lines sparked and caused a fire.
Te Rehunga resident Don Stephenson said the winds were so ferocious it had been difficult to stand up and out on the Ormondville/Norsewood Rd wind was rocking the house, one resident said.
Another call for the Dannevirke brigade came at 4pm when roofing iron began lifting off an old building in Allardice St, and that was the start of a long night responding to calls from almost every street in town.
At one stage with back-to-back callouts to Madrid St and Christian St, at 9.45pm, the Dannevirke brigade called in Norsewood to assist.
That was the start of a long evening for the Norsewood volunteers who had seven callouts throughout the night.
"We've been quiet for so long, but wham, reality hit on Monday night, when at 10pm all hell broke loose," Norsewood fire chief Terrance Ahern said. "We were up and down State Highway 2 clearing away trees with the police and we'd been called in to help Dannevirke at Umutaoroa in the morning and then later at night we helped out again as they were inundated with calls. We tried to secure roofs as best we could, but in those strong winds it was dangerous.
"The wind was unbelievable and at 10.30pm Monday we were called to Matamau where a truck and trailer had been blown off the road. The wind was so strong it was still picking up the trailer and lifting it into the air, even though it was attached to the truck."
The truck driver was uninjured in the incident.
Wild weather caused power outages in and around Dannevirke during Monday, as gale-force winds caused conductors to clash together tripping out supply.
At one stage downtown Dannevirke was in lockdown, with banks closed, petrol stations unable to operate and the supermarket turning away customers as Scanpower lines crews scrambled to keep up.
Although the winds weren't a problem at Ormondville, the volunteer firefighters were called to five incidents during the night and into yesterday morning, fire chief Bill Rendell said.
"Most of our callouts were to Matamau, one to a roof lifting off a house and the others to trees across the road," he said. "We're hoping it's all over now."
Downed trees closed Tataramoa Rd on Monday afternoon and early evening Riverdale Rd was also closed by fallen trees.
Further north, Snee Rd at the boundary of Ellison Rd was also closed late afternoon because of fallen trees.
Yesterday Dannevirke was in clean-up mode, after debris, including trees, branches, leaves and billboards were blown on to streets and footpaths.
