The perils of unattended cooking fires came to the fore yet again in Northland after a family was lucky to escape serious injury or death, and a pensioner was rescued in the nick of time by a woman walking her dogs.
The fires at homes in the Whangarei suburbs of Onerahi and Kensington occurred less than 10 hours apart and the Fire Service said despite extensive and costly advertising telling people not to cook after returning home from parties or the pub, or not to leave cooking unattended, the message wasnt getting through.
Whangarei firefighters were called to a house in Churchill St about 5pm on Friday after an 86-year-old woman suffered injuries trying to extinguish a burning pot of cooking oil.
The woman, who lives alone, discovered the burning pot on the stove after leaving it unattended and burned a hand after picking it up by the handle. She had then placed the pot in a sink and turned on the cold water to try to put out the fire but suffered more burns after the oil exploded on contact with water. A woman walking her dogs saw flames coming out of the kitchen, removed the woman from the house and took her to a neighbour.
Colin Gillies, who lives next door, said he allowed his neighbour to relax in a garage while waiting for emergency services to arrive. "She was quite coherent and had her wits about her but that (fire) gave her a hell of a fright. She tried to tell me what had happened", he said.