Hastings fire officers say messages about fire safety and smoke alarms are not being heeded after two fires yesterday afternoon.
Station officer Bruce Botherway said a fire in a lounge of a house on Tucker Lane, Clive, started when a clothes-drying rack was put too close to a wood burner.
The home did not have smoke alarms but a woman who was in the shower was alerted when her toddler became upset. The pair were assessed for smoke inhalation at the scene.
An oven fire in the Hastings suburb of Mahora was out when the fire service arrived but was another case of a home without working smoke alarms.
Mr Botherway said keeping clothes a safe distance from heaters and fireplaces was key and the "keep looking while you're cooking" message was also not getting through.
Doors had been left open throughout both houses, where closed doors would prevent a fire spreading, he said.
Assistant area commander Ken Cooper said smoke alarms were a "last line of defence" and people needed to follow fire safety advice.
Lessons such as never leaving cooking unattended and keeping clothes "a metre from the heater" could have prevented yesterday's incidents.
The station had attended four house fires in the past month where the homes did not have smoke alarms. They also had one recent call out where a neighbour heard the smoke alarm and called the fire service, which was able to prevent serious damage.
"The cost of smoke alarms is quite insignificant compared with the consequences of not having one."
An unusual fire in Marewa shortly after midnight this morning broke another cardinal rule of fire safety - disposing of ashes correctly. Napier station officer, Peter Draper, said a Bedford Rd resident's van ignited after he put hot ashes from his chimney in the vehicle.
"The guy cleaned his chimney out and then put the debris in his van and then didn't take them out when he got home.
"So the material that he got out of the chimney ended up sitting in his van, and it was obviously still hot and ignited the other things in there."
Mr Draper said the van was well ablaze when fire crews arrived, and was destroyed.
Fire boss: Our warnings are failing to hit home
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