Fire burns through front of house
Police CIB officers were at the scene of a South Taranaki house fire yesterday morning.
Fire crews from Ha¯wera, Manaia and Okaiawa extinguished the blaze, which burnt through the front of a house on Vogel St, Ha¯wera, shortly after 7am.
Ha¯ wera chief fire officer Mike Fairweather said it took the five appliances and 36 staff around half an hour to put it out.
There was also a crew from Stratford on standby at the Ha¯ wera station.
‘‘The front of the house was fully involved on arrival and we cut it off and saved the back half,’’ Fairweather said.
The crews were called around 7.15am.
He said staff were just getting ready to go to their paid jobs when the call came through.
‘‘Correctly installed smoke alarms may have alerted the owner sooner.’’
Fairweather said an ambulance was called to the scene as a precaution but no-one was injured.
Vogel St resident Justine Ockers said she didn’t see the fire straight away – she heard sirens, smelt the smoke and came outside. She saw the occupants, understood to be a couple, come out of the house in pyjamas and move their car away from the house.
‘‘It was quite intense,’’ Ockers said.
A reporter at the scene said police officers and members of the police CIB were there.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand specialist fire investigator Andrew Cotter said he could not say why the CIB were at the scene, but didn’t think the fire was suspicious.
Cotter said the fire started in the roof and was most likely an electrical fire but he was still investigating. He said it was probably caused by wiring or an electrical appliance.