Inside today
Two young men ran for their lives as a fire tore through their home.
Matt Trask awoke to the stench of burning plastic as the room around him burned to ash.
‘‘I was just in panic – didn’t really know what to do.’’
Trask and friend Ollie Walker, both 18, managed to escape uninjured, as the fire engulfed the Palmerston North home on Featherston St, near the Russell St intersection, within minutes.
The pair called the fire service shortly after 1am on Monday. By the time they had walked down the driveway, fire engines were already at the scene, Trask said.
About 16 firefighters from Milson and Palmerston North’s fire stations tackled the blaze.
Trask said it was overwhelming to watch the fire take hold of the two-storey building.
‘‘It’s just amazing how it goes up that quick.’’
There were no working smoke alarms in the house. Trask said he and Walker were both ‘‘very lucky’’ to wake up and flee the fire.
As they did, they did not stop to think about possessions. Their only thought was about getting out safely, Trask said.
Walker agreed they were lucky to get out.
He encouraged people to get smoke alarms and think about their safety.
Walker’s mother owned the house, but is overseas.
Palmerston North senior fire station officer Ian King said the crew had to battle a ‘‘flame about 3 metres high, roaring out of the house’’, after a gas pipe burst.
The burst pipe, which was connected to the meter outside the house, added a ‘‘bit of a spanner in the works’’ as crews fought the flames for about an hour-and-a-half before the gas could be turned off.
Senior station officer Ian Penn said the flame sounded like the roar of a jetboat engine.
Although there were no injuries and the crews managed to put out the fire, the house was severely damaged.
It was a scene of ash, buckled metal and charred wood on Monday morning.
Penn said he was disappointed there were no working smoke alarms in the house. There could easily have been fatalities, he said.
It was the second blaze Palmerston North and Milson firefighters attended overnight, being first called to one on Ranfurly St.
Fire service spokesman David Meikle said three fire engines rushed to a house on fire there about 6pm on Sunday.
The house was empty and nobody was injured in that fire either.
It was being treated as suspicious.
Fire investigators were looking into the cause of both blazes on Monday morning.
Penn said the fire service had been busy in the past few weeks with fires in the district. Although there was no common theme linking them, he said many of them had been electrical fires.
Bulls resident Trevor Bettany was shocked after returning home last week to see his house ablaze.
Six fire trucks and two water tankers from Bulls, Whanganui, Feilding and Marton fought to control the fire on Thursday evening.
About half a dozen trucks also fought a blaze at a Tararua home on Wednesday. A neighbour had said it looked like fireball erupted from the house.
Just the week earlier, a fire also gutted a Palmerston North family’s first home, leaving them devastated.