A Southland family who cremated a relative on a farm came within hours of having him cremated by professionals - but then took his body away when told they could not be inside the cremation room.

Invercargill City Council parks manager Robin Pagan, who is in charge of the Southland Crematorium, said the dead man's family arrived at the crematorium for the delivery of the body before Christmas.

"They wanted to go into the crematory room [for the cremation] but we don't allow that - when we told them they couldn't be in the room they took the body away."

Chris Ramage later helped cremate his brother, John Ramage, at his Nightcaps farm.

The fire was huge and burned for two days, with police Sergeant John De Lury saying there was very little left of John Ramage's body after the fire.

Police investigated, but did not lay charges, despite the family not having the paperwork to do the cremation.

Pagan said the Ramage family had been denied access into the Invercargill cremation room for health and safety reasons and because the building was too small for the public to be inside.

Several other families had also asked to be inside the room for the cremation of their loved ones in recent months, but all had been denied for the same reasons, he said.

Cremation Society of Canterbury general manager Barbara Terry yesterday said she felt for the Ramage family because it was important to them that they participate in the cremation.

"They were denied something that was very important to them. They weren't catered for so they took control of the situation as best they could.

"If this family had contacted me with that request, I would have said, 'you get that casket to Christchurch and you will be able to watch the casket go into the cremator at my facility'."

Cremating a body in the manner of the Nightcaps fire was a "terrible situation from my perspective", she said.

A large open fire would not have the same heat as a specially-designed cremator, which had a temperature of about 900 degrees Celsius and cremated a body in 90 minutes, she said.

"They would have had to keep feeding that fire ... I just can't imagine what they did."