Two crews from Kaitaia and one from Ahipara quickly had the fire under control, but not before it had burned 200 metres up a hill, sweeping under one of the houses and burning within a metre of the other. A small wooden shed was just about to go up when the firefighters arrived.
The wooden piles of one house were charred, a small footbridge was destroyed, and a large area of kikuyu and part of a fenceline were burned.
Mr Beddows had no doubt that the crews would have been fighting a house fire had it not been for the prompt actions of Mr Meads and the neighbours.
"This is a timely reminder of how dry parts of the North still are," he added.
"Fires may be lit with a permit, but wind and weather conditions are often not being taken into account. No fire - no matter how small - should be left unattended."
Further evidence of "poor judgement" had been evident at Pamapuria on Monday afternoon, when a fire was lit in an area surrounded by long grass, which soon ignited. The flames rapidly spread up a hill, and while no property was endangered State Highway 1 was enveloped in smoke.
Two appliances attended another uncontrolled rubbish fire after it got into dry grass at Waimanoni on Friday, and Kaitaia's tanker was turned back from a scrub fire at Motukaraka on Saturday, Mr Beddows saying Kohukohu firefighters had done well to bring what appeared to be a potentially dangerous blaze under control.
"Also on Tuesday we were turned back from Pukenui when a fire there was found to be covered by a permit, and just before midnight on Tuesday a late night cook-up at a Grigg Street home went awry. The pot had been forgotten about, and the contents were definitely well done when we arrived to ventilate the home with a positive pressure fan," he said.
"It was good to see and hear a smoke alarm though. At least that message appears to be getting through."
