A microwave oven caught fire inside a unit at Mary Doyle rest home in Havelock North tonight.
Deputy chief fire officer Kevin Lay said the food found in the oven was "well overcooked" and was so hot the glass inside the microwave had cracked.
"It appeared a wrong setting may have been selected as the food was well gone by the time we got there."
The fire didn't spread outside the microwave oven but the smoke which filled the room activated the alarm as the occupant of the unit was not in there.
Initially a search and rescue operation was launched to find the man but he was later found at the evacuation point.
