Smoke alerts neighbours to fire
Quick action by neighbours and firefighters saved a South Taranaki house from destruction.
The occupants of the Ha¯wera house were not home when it caught fire about 7pm on Wednesday, and neighbours raised the alarm.
Kate Reade, who lives two doors away, smelled smoke when she opened her son’s bedroom window to cool the room, and heard what sounded like fire crackers. She ran down her driveway to the street, spotted smoke coming out of the house, and yelled to her partner to ring the fire brigade.
‘‘The fire brigade was there in minutes. They got straight to it,’’ Reade said.
Daughter Hannah, 10, watched from a safe distance as her mum knocked on the door of the burning house to make sure there was nobody home.
The fire was the most dramatic event these school holidays for Hannah and her brother Connor, 12, who watched the fire crews at work, along with other neighbours along the street.
‘‘I was shaking,’’ she said. Chief fire officer Mike Fairweather said the house was just moments away from a much more damaging blaze when a crew from the Ha¯wera Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived just after 7pm.
‘‘Another minute or two, it would have been well involved,’’ he said. ‘‘The fire was contained to a corner in the lounge, and some smoke damage in the front part of the house.
‘‘It was a very lucky and very good save. They were very lucky.’’
The cause of the fire was still being investigated, he said.
Another neighbour, Helen Wall, heard the fire before she smelt it. ‘‘My grandson said, ‘It sounds like someone is letting off firecrackers,’ so we went out to have a look,’’ she said.
The occupants of the house were at work at the time, she added.