Neighbours flee fierce house fire

Neighbours feared for their safety as fire destroyed a house on Nelson’s Tahunanui Drive.

A neighbour said her teenage grandson woke about 2am yesterday to the smell of smoke, and ran into her room to wake her because he thought the adjoining house was on fire.

She was initially unsure where exactly the fire was, but she could see ‘‘massive flames’’ several metres high behind their property when they left their house.

‘‘We packed things into our vehicles, but we couldn’t get out because of the fire engines who couldn’t get up the driveway because of the trees.

‘‘You could see the flames and all this black stuff was coming out. We couldn’t even breathe, so we stayed in the car.’’

She said it was lucky that there was no wind and the surrounding bush had not caught fire. ‘‘I’ve never been anywhere near a fire so close.’’

Another neighbour said that until about three months ago, the house was lived in by a woman in her 80s, who had since moved into a rest home.

The house next to the one that caught fire was boarded up and had been a target for vandalism, so police often checked on it.

The woman said the man who lived above her was one of the first to notice the fire. He called 111, then ran up the driveway to check if anyone was inside the house – but the door was so hot that he couldn’t touch it.

The woman said she feared the fire was going to spread down the hill to her house, so she packed a bag and ‘‘took off’’.

Access to the single-storey home was difficult, as it was up a steep driveway covered with overgrown trees. The neighbour said she had asked for the trees to be trimmed, and another neighbour had called Network Tasman about the matter, as the trees were close to overhead power lines.

Firefighters spent the early hours of yesterday morning working to get the house fire under control.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman Daniel Reilly said 12 crews were called to the blaze about 2.10am. The single-storey house was ‘‘well involved’’ when they arrived.

The fire was extinguished by 3.40am. Crews remained at the scene later in the morning. Luckily, no other homes were damaged.

Reilly could not say if the house was empty at the time of the fire, but there were no reported injuries.

The fire is being treated as suspicious. Police and fire investigators were at the scene yesterday.

A Ta¯hunanui house was well ablaze when fire crews arrived early yesterday morning. There were no reported injuries, and the fire is being treated as suspicious.