There were no public holiday sleep-ins for Greytown or Carterton fire fighters yesterday, called to a barn fire that sparked when hay, which was stored inside, spontaneously combusted.
A paper delivery man called emergency services just before 4am after he spotted smoke coming from the barn south of the Waiohine River bridge.
Two fire trucks from Greytown and a tanker from Carterton attended the blaze, which took about two hours to put out, using about 30,000 litres of water.
The farmer who owned the shed used his tractor, to pull "the 30 or so" bales out in varying states of blackness, to smoulder, said Greytown station officer Harry Howard.
He said the shed was now in an "alright" condition but if it hadn't been spotted in the night the result "could have been a lot worse".
