KEY POINTS:
A smoke alarm is being credited with saving the life of an Auckland man and his 18-month-old daughter who suffered from smoke inhalation after a fire yesterday.
Fire Safety Officer Russel Dickson said the man woke to find smoke filling his bedroom, which the baby was also sleeping in, after a smoke alarm in another room went off about 8.15am.
The fire started when blankets from the man's bed fell on, or close to, a single bar heater at the base of his bed.
Mr Dickson said the blankets would have smouldered for a while before catching fire and filling the room with smoke. The smoke eventually drifted into the other room and activated the alarm.
Mr Dickson said the baby was removed from the property in Three Kings by her mother and put on oxygen by firefighters until an ambulance arrived.
"The baby has suffered from quite a lot of smoke inhalation - you can imagine at 18-months-old it doesn't too take much."
She was taken to Starship Hospital in a stable condition.
The man stayed in the house trying to remove furniture, a move the Fire Service does not recommend.
"Unfortunately because of that he was also affected by smoke. If you are going to have a fire you either chose to save your property or yourself and I think yourself is more important."
Mr Dickson said the fire highlighted two key messages the Fire Service tries to push - always keeping items 'one metre from the heater' and always having working smoke alarms in all bedrooms.
Mr Dickson said the baby would not have suffered so much smoke inhalation if there had been a working alarm in the main bedroom.
