One dead, one treated after Wairarapa house fire
A 52-year-old woman is dead after a house fire in Wairarapa early yesterday.
The fire broke out in a house on White Rock Rd, Martinborough, at about 1am, Detective Senior Sergeant Barry Bysouth said.
A 62-year-old woman managed to escape the house and was treated for smoke inhalation, but the other occupant was found dead inside by emergency services.
Neighbour Matt Guild, who lives 300 metres across a farm paddock from the house that was destroyed, said he woke in the early hours of the morning to hear the sirens as emergency services arrived.
‘‘I saw the lights at three in the morning and wondered what was going on.’’
He didn’t know the occupants of the house.
Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the family had lived in the house for about two years. He did not know them well but would wave when he saw them.
He said it was hideous to learn one of them had not survived the fire. ‘‘We’ve had a quiet morning here thinking about it. It’s a sad situation, even if you don’t know someone well.’’
The last fire trucks left the scene just after 10am but Fire and Emergency NZ investigators had set up a tent to continue working.
Bysouth said both women in the house at the time of fire were living there. The one being treated at Wairarapa Hospital was released later yesterday morning.
Police continued inspecting the charred remains of the small weatherboard villa, which was completely gutted.
The fire was not initially being treated as suspicious. The scene examination would continue today.