Kids and matches do not mix

LOST CAUSE: A fire brigade crew fighting a losing battle in Matilda Place, Kaitaia on Thursday afternoon.

The gutting of a house in Matilda Place Kaitaia on Thursday afternoon prompted another reminder from the town's senior firefighter that children and matches do not mix.

Colin Kitchen said the fire had begun as a result of a 4-year-old child playing with a barbecue lighter in a bedroom, the fire exploding beyond control when the tenant opened the bedroom door to douse the flames with a bucket of water.

The heat was so intense that spouting on the neighbouring house melted and a glass door exploded, building paper under the eaves catching fire and at one point threatening to burn that home as well.

The property was saved, but suffered smoke and water damage.

Mr Kitchen said the blaze offered another reminder that children and matches did not mix.

"Matches and lighters should never be left where children can get to them," he said.

"They should be put on top of the fridge or somewhere else where little hands can't reach them."

The house had been well involved by the time the first appliance arrived, seven minutes after the alarm was raised, and there was nothing the crews could do to save it, although the walls and roof were still standing by the time the blaze was extinguished.

Mr Kitchen was pleased to hear from owner Leonie Rogers that two classes from nearby Kaitaia Intermediate School had visited to see first-hand the catastrophic damage fire could do.

That was the major incident of an extraordinarily busy period for the brigade, which responded to 10 alarms in 24 hours. The flurry began on Tuesday, when burning rubbish set fire to roadside grass and other vegetation in Kumi Road, Awanui. Another grass fire was doused at the lookout in Okahu Road on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a burn-off that got out of control at Te Kao, a rubbish fire at Panguru (which did not get out of control but generated enough smoke to inspire a neighbour to raise the alarm), a stove fire at an address in North Road (which did enough damage to warrant a new kitchen) and a vegetation fire at North Cape.

The brigade could not access that fire, and was stood down, with a helicopter to be used the following day.

Saturday produced calls to a single-vehicle non-injury crash in Church Road Kaitaia and an ambulance assist at Ahipara, and Sunday three, to a medical emergency at Ahipara and a vegetation fire in the Fairburn area, which prompted a second alarm when it re-ignited later in the day.