UPDATED 6.11pm: It's been all hands to the pump in North Otago where a stretch of fires continues to burn - apparently caused by a vintage steam train.

The blazes stretch for kilometres, and there are fears houses could be under threat.

The steam train Jessica had visited Oamaru, to the delight of locals, and was just heading back to Dunedin when the first smoke was sighted.

Local man Stephen had found a good spot to watch the train go past when his group saw the smoke and flames, and his wife called the fire department.

Stephen then spied someone fighting a fire with a sack, who he quickly recognised as his own Uncle Gordon. He then remembered stories his mother used to tell him about steam trains always setting fire to the grass in summer - and locals using wet sacks to try and put the blazes out.

"And sure enough that was my Uncle Gordon, who is now 70, bashing away at the fire to try and keep the flames down to try and prevent it from spreading any further," he says, "battling the fire just like he used to do probably 45 to 50 years ago.'

Stephen says firefighters have been flat tack with so many fires to attend to, including one where old silage tyres caught alight and sent black smoke all over a road, which had to be closed.

"It was just incredible how out of control it got and how widespread it was," he says of the many fires. "It was actually quite surprising, given the fact that the Council said three weeks ago or more that there was a complete fire ban in the region, it was actually surprising that the steam train was allowed to run."

Stephen says helicopters were soon flying over with buckets and it seemed like every fire engine in the district had been called out. "She was certainly creating a lot of excitement for a lot of different people - excitement that they would rather, obviously, have not had."