Blaze engulfs garage

By Nathan Crombie

nathan.crombie@age.co.nz

Firefighters saved two Masterton homes from flames with only moments to spare after a blaze engulfed a residential garage.

Masterton Fire Service station officer Garry Nielsen said a fire crew had been attending an alarm triggered at Wairarapa College about 1pm yesterday when a second call was fielded about the garage fire at a property in Cambridge Terrace

Two Masterton fire crews and two volunteer Carterton crews attended the fire. The blaze had blistered paint on the home and blown in a window and ignited wallboards and a wooden window eave that had been exposed to the flames.

"There were direct flames coming out the front of the garage and the house - only about two metres away - had caught fire. The fire was only moments from going inside. We got there just in time," Mr Nielsen said.

The flames also had threatened a neighbouring home and a car parked at the nearby property.

Wooden window eaves on the neighbouring property had been in the direct line of the flames, he said.

Mr Nielsen said the blaze had erupted while the homeowner was at work and the likely cause of the fire was sparks from discarded fireplace ashes that had been left in a container in the garage.

The fire had severely damaged the building and a metal roller door, although there had been little other property consumed in the blaze.