Two calls to same Elgin house, fire in bedroom

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Firefighters were called twice to a house at the Elgin end of Childers Road overnight Sunday after a fire started in a bedroom of the property early in the evening.

Fire and Emergency NZ sent appliances to the home at around 6pm initially.

“A small fire had started in a bed in a bedroom of the home,” a senior firefighter said.

“The occupants were alerted to it by smoke alarms and used pots of water to try to contain the fire spread, which they were able to do to a degree.”

The first fire crew to arrive used a high pressure delivery to deal with the fire when they got there.

“The bed was extensively damaged, and the bedroom itself sustained bad smoke damage, with smoke damage to the rest of the home,” he said.

“How the fire got started has yet to be determined.”

The residents were not injured but did not stay in the house overnight, he said.

Then at 12.30am yesterday morning FENZ were called back to the house.

“A second fire had started in the same bedroom and how that started is under investigation.”

A specialist fire investigator has been called in.

The second fire added to the smoke damage and there was further moderate fire damage to the room.