Australia Weather News

The publican in the South Australian town of Olary said historic buildings and cottages stood no chance against a fire that tore through the town.

Firefighters don't know what started the blaze, which began in a cottage belonging to merchant seaman John Sellers on Wednesday afternoon.

Publican Sam McLeod was nearby when Mr Sellers discovered the fire around 3 o'clock.

"They don't know what actually started it but he was lucky to get out, he could smell the smoke and he opened the door to one of his rooms and flames just exploded," Mr McLeod said.

"He only uses it every now and again when he's on shore break."

The fire quickly took hold in the hot and windy weather, on a day when major bushfires took three lives elsewhere in South Australia.

It spread to a vacant cottage next door, through a former bakery and then an empty deli next to Mr McLeod's pub, burning each of them to the ground.

"A lot of history went with them," Mr McLeod said.

Mr Sellers' cottage was the only occupied building.

Mr McLeod said old oil and gas bottles stored in the buildings' yards exploded, creating a hazard for graziers who were first on the scene.

"We were quite lucky that one property was carting water and they saw the smoke and actually came straight up," Mr McLeod said.

"Another two adjoining properties came out with their fire tankers as well."

Country Fire Service crews from Yunta soon arrived, and were later joined by the Broken Hill and Peterborough fire brigades who had to travel for well over an hour to reach the scene.

Flames lapped at the hotel's boundary fenceline, with Mr McLeod fearing it would be destroyed.

"It was right on the fenceline of the hotel, we had to shift the vehicles and that, and we had to douse the little hut which is right next door to the pub so it was quite frightening, it was quite close," he said.

"I really wasn't thinking, I was just trying to do the best I could and save the little hut and the animals that we had here."

The following morning shed light on a scene of devastation.

"It was like somebody dropped a bomb," Mr McLeod said.

There was little firefighters could do to stop the fire spreading.

"Usually you can sort of intervene in time, even though it is over an hour out of Broken Hill and some of the local crews were on site quicker," Broken Hill firefighter Matt Hunter said.

"But all the flames were driven by very hot temperatures and strong winds out there and the fire spread quite rapidly between the buildings."

Mr Hunter said the ruins are unlikely to yield any clues as to the cause.

ABC