Two men were believed to be staying in the hut, on private property near Tuatapere. File photo
Two men were believed to be staying in the hut, on private property near Tuatapere. File photo
One man is dead after a fire destroyed a remote hunters hut in Southland.
Two men were staying in the hut, on private property near Tuatapere - west of Invercargill.
The hut's other occupant escaped the blaze, southern fire communications shift manager Andrew Norris said.
The Fire Service was calledto the scene at 1.45am, but due to the hut only being accessible by a 10km four-wheel-drive track, it took 65 minutes to get to its location.
Mr Norris said he believed the fire had been going for "some time" before emergency services were contacted, due to patchy cell phone reception in the area.
Keith McIntosh, the on-call commander for Southland and Wakatipu, told the Otago Daily Times that care was taken while putting out the fire to preserve evidence at the scene, and a skeleton crew guarded the scene overnight.