Man dies after fire at hunters hut

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 called to 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.

Police and the ambulance service also attended the incident.

The fire service and police are still at the scene and a specialist team is investigating the fire's cause.

Police believe they know the identity of the man who died and are currently speaking with his family.

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.