A small fire in a rubbish hole escalated into a blaze spreading about 150 metre on a rise between Bay View and Eskdale on Saturday.
Principal rural fire officer Trevor Mitchell said a large contingent of firefighters were needed to get the blaze under control quickly.
"It was about 150m by 80m. I was fighting fires in Nelson so it wasn't a particularly large fire- but it was making its way up towards two houses on the hill so it was posing a bit of a threat at one stage."
Mitchell said the fire service was called about 6pm and had the fire out before 9pm.
"We were very lucky that it was a calm day and that there was no wind, but it's still pretty dry around that area so people do need to be vigilant."