House destroyed by early morning blaze

Residents in a quiet neighbourhood off Molesworth Drive were woken early this morning by the sounds of flames tearing through a bordering property, a fast moving fire which left nothing but charred remains and luckily took no lives.

At around 6am eyewitnesses say they saw flames leaping from the American barn-style home on the end of Sand Piper Lane.

By the time four fire trucks and support vehicles from Mangawhai, Kaiwaka, Maungaturoto and Waipu arrived soon after the 111 call, the house was totally engulfed Chief Fire Officer at Kaiwaka, John Bowmar said.

“Sad to say nothing could be done for the house. It’s a wooden structure and the fire didn’t take long. We focused on saving the shed two metres away. No other structures were threatened and luckily the wind was blowing away from the shed,” he says. “No one was injured which is the main thing.”

People were seen to leave the property at the time and nobody was hurt by the fire.

The blaze took the firefighters only half an hour to get under control.

“We have good systems in place now, had a lot of water available and got the fire under control pretty quickly. The teams did an excellent job.”

To date the cause of the fire is unknown and police say the matter is under investigation.

Photos show the feriocity of the blaze that quickly engulfed a Mangawhai home in the early hours of October 19. (PHOTOS/George Currie)