With the temperature gauge reaching up to 30C in Hastings yesterday, the heat was on firefighters who attended a house fire on Miller St.
Neither the occupant of the house, nor the boarder that lives there, were home at 1.10pm when fire crews were called.
Hastings senior station officer Darren Clark said two crews from Hastings were the first to arrive to find the fire was involved at the rear of the house.
"At first it was unconfirmed if there were people inside so they searched the house but no-one was at home."
Police cordoned off the street between the Victoria and Albert St intersections for more than an hour and the Hastings firefighters were joined by Napier and the St John ambulance.