A Northland property owner could only watch firefighters try to halt the spread of flames through the family home from which she, her 8-year-old daughter and a friend had fled moments earlier.
The woman, who was extremely upset and in shock, was wrapped in a blanket on a neighbour's front lawn and was one of three who had fled from the Beverley Crescent house in Maungatapere just before 10am yesterday.
The woman's husband, the manager of a Whangarei appliance store, arrived home shortly after the fire started.
"There's nothing we can do ... at least they all got out all right. We're just trying to sort it all out now," he said.
The woman and her daughter sought refuge at a neighbour's house two doors away and support for them was quick to arrive. People with baking and others with hot drinks turned up to comfort the family.