Neighbours helpless to stop fatal fire
Horrified neighbours heard a scream from inside a house as it was engulfed in flames.
One person managed to get out of the burning house in Helensville, northwest of Auckland, but firefighters later revealed that they found an elderly person dead inside.
Neighbour Neisha Bartlett was woken to what sounded like bottles smashing just after midnight on Wednesday. Her partner Duncan Bartlett rushed outside to see a man running up and down his driveway.
As Neisha Bartlett called 111, her partner tried to wake neighbours and get hoses out until fire crews arrived.
A few people gathered and stopped the man from going back into the burning home.
‘‘I think the man was trying to get the hose off his deck to put out the fire. I think he was trying to get in there for ages but he couldn’t,’’ Bartlett said.
The fire was ‘‘huge’’ and happened ‘‘so fast’’, she said.
‘‘My partner couldn’t do much because the house was burning to smithereens. It was horrible. One fire truck got here and the whole house was on fire.’’
She said she heard a woman scream inside the burning house. ‘‘It was horrible hearing her scream.’’
‘‘We’re a bit shaken up, actually,’’ Duncan Bartlett said.
He said a couple, who they thought were in their 60s, moved into the house about eight months ago.
The house was well ablaze, with the top level totally involved in fire, when local volunteer firefighters arrived at the scene, Waitemata assistant area commander John Booth said.
He confirmed that only one person managed to get out of the burning house in Awaroa Rd.
Firefighters were told there was a possibility there was still an occupant inside the house, Booth said. ‘‘They had to start carrying out quite a comprehensive search and rescue, and unfortunately, they found the occupant.
‘‘We have to be able to extinguish a fair bit of the house to be able to go in and start searching. It’s quite hard work.
‘‘It gets quite emotional for our firefighters to start searching and then come across a person who has been caught in the fire. And being a small town like Helensville, there is the possibility also that some of the volunteer firefighters there knew the family.’’