Toothpick ignites home
A wireless phone charger fixed with tape and a toothpick sparked a blaze that destroyed a Hamilton home, killing the dog inside.
The single mother and her two children, aged 17 and 24, also lost most of their possessions in the blaze that tore through their unit on Wednesday night.
Around 8.30pm, the trio left the two-bedroom flat at the back of a Grandview Road section in Nawton to visit family up the road.
Shortly after, a woman living in the front house heard a faint beeping.
Thinking it was her fridge left open, she went to investigate, Fire Investigator Kevin Holmes said.
‘‘She’s wandered out and opened one of the windows and could smell smoke.
‘‘She’s checked her place and there was nothing, so she’s come outside and could see the orange flickering in the corner through the windows.’’
The noise was the back flat’s sounding smoke alarms. She called 111 around 9pm.
By the time the Fire Service arrived, the fire had taken hold in a bedroom.
Pressure burst the bedroom windows, fuelling the blaze with oxygen. The fire burned up through the walls and into the living area.
Smoke stained the walls down to the floor level.
Holmes said the dog was believed to have escaped to a back room, where it was overcome by smoke. There were initial fears the family cat had also died, but it turned up the next day.
After investigating, Holmes said the fire started in a wireless cellphone charger sitting on the top of a bedroom dresser.
The wireless charger was connected to a power supply and charged the cellphone via a power cord. The cord had a broken wire, which someone had tried to fix using a toothpick and tape.
‘‘Once you have broken wires, you start to have troubles. Broken wires in electrical appliances heat up.
‘‘Given power was constantly running to the charger, the broken wire has heated up and ignited on the dresser.’’
Picking up the cellphone from the charger was one of the last things the occupant did before walking out the door, he said.
‘‘It’s purely accidental. If anything goes wrong with electrical appliances, especially if you have broken wires, you need to stop using them.’’
Losing their dog had been tough, he said.
‘‘It’s unfortunate. And they’re uninsured, so they’ve lost their contents.’’
Although there was smoke and heat damage throughout, early intervention meant fire crews were able to contain most of the fire.
‘‘The smoke alarms alerted the neighbour, which meant we could save much of the possessions inside, including photos,’’ a spokesman for Pukete Brigade said.
He believed the family would likely be able to retrieve some items.