A Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) spokesman said they received “multiple calls” about the fire on Beach Rd at 2.27am. Just before 7.30am, two fire trucks remained on the scene and the “majority” of the fire had been extinguished.
Neighbours told the Herald on Monday evening that the home – which they described as a hoarder’s house – was inhabited by a man and two sisters, one of whom owned the property.
“Two sisters, two hoarders, two houses, both gone,” the neighbour said.
She said nearby residents were woken to the sound of crackling fire and metal bars flexing and falling over in the early hours of this morning, before pouring out onto the street to watch the blaze.
At its peak, 10 fire trucks from 10 different stations were battling the blaze in the early hours of Monday morning.
“The embers were scary because the fire just creates its own wind.”
The neighbour said residents of the property next door to the fire - the same property that had been destroyed in 2016 and redeveloped into a townhouse since - ran out of their home with their young baby after firefighters instructed them to leave.
“They came round the back and shouted, ‘They think this might go up so you may want to leave as well’.
“That was the scariest part because they’ve got a young baby. I spoke to them this morning and their house is quite smelly,” she said.
Fenz this morning confirmed all people were accounted for.
At its peak, 10 fire trucks from 10 different stations were battling the blaze. This included six regular trucks a ladder truck, a hazmat vehicle and a “specialist breathing apparatus” support team.
Firefighters continued to battle the blaze at dawn after calls were first made at 2.30am. Photo / Mike Rogan
She said because it was a hoarder’s house, every time something new and flammable caught fire there would be a “mini explosion”.
“At one point, there was just this huge column of fire because a gas bottle or something went up.”
She said she had spoke to the man living at the property this morning, who was in bed and could smell smoke before seeing the fire raging through the property.
“He thought it was maybe his lamp burning something and then the ceiling exploded and they thought it was an electrical fire.”
The remains of the Beach Rd property after a fire erupted in the early hours of Monday morning.
Another nearby resident, who didn’t wish to be named, told the Herald he thought it was just a scrub fire at first before seeing the house erupt in flames.
“I was concerned of course that it was going to spread to multiple houses,” he said.
Speaking of the 2016 fire, he said; “I remember that one quite well because we were all out on the street again.”
“That was major because it was quite a windy night, it was raining and the flames were licking the corner of another house.
“The woman was not living in it at the time, it was full of newspapers and organic rubbish, which brought rats at one point. It was razed to the ground that night,” he said.
When the Herald visited the property on Monday evening, it looked more like a dumping ground than a place where anyone might have once lived.
A burnt-out car sat in the driveway. The smell of the blaze still lingering throughout the neighbourhood.
