The people who lived in a house which burned down in East Auckland had only owned it for six months.
And the man who died in the fire had set up a fitness business in the garage of the Minerva Tce, Cockle Bay, home during the country's Covid-19 lockdown, a neighbour
said.
The man died and two others were injured after fire tore through the house shortly before 7pm yesterday.
The two injured residents were recovering in Middlemore Hospital.
Paul Pope lives next door to the house and said the people had only bought the property about six months ago, so didn't know them very well.
"They were quiet and kept to themselves. [The man] was running a fitness business from the house after the first lockdown."
Pope was at the gym when the fire began and arrived home to find the street cordoned off.
He was eventually let in to his house about 9pm.
Fortunately the smoke had been blowing the other way so there wasn't a strong smell of smoke in his home.
"The smoke was going the other way, luckily. There was a slight smell of smoke through our house but that was all.
"We were concerned for our animals but they are all fine."
Geoff Purcell, Counties Manukau Area Commander, said the man who died was found near a doorway.
While the fire was still being investigated on behalf of the coroner, Purcell said he didn't know if the man was trying to leave or get into the house, but there were reports from neighbours of seeing a man trying to get back inside.
He urged people not to try to go back into a property which was ablaze.
"If you have evacuated a house, don't go back in.
"The reports from the neighbours were that people had gone back into the house."
The fire had begun in the living area of the house, he said, and caused significant damage.
As for how it started, that was still being investigated by two fire investigators at the scene today who would work together and go through the house "piece by piece".
"It's quite a laborious process and they leave no stone unturned because they need to determine how the fire started and how the person died and if they're related or not."
The fire was also a reminder for people about having working smoke alarms and an adequate escape plan.
"It didn't have any working smoking alarms and that's our key message that we keep putting out. If you don't the fire can be developing in a part of the house that you're not sitting in and then by the time you discover it, it's too late to escape.
"[Alarms] give you an early warning that there's something going on and you can then react to that.
"In hand with that is having an escape plan so you know two ways out of every room."
The house also had a concrete tiled roof, so when it catches fire the large, heavy tiles can fall from the roof and unexpectedly hit anybody with force underneath.
"As soon as the fire gets up in the roof typically they do come down. An iron roof is self supporting, pretty much and it can burn all the wood out from underneath it, but concrete tiles as soon as they get weakened by the fire the whole thing can't hold up all the concrete and it comes down.
"If you get a couple of square metres of that coming down it can really hurt you and knock you unconscious and flatten you."
The house was also situated down a long right of way which hampered the immediacy of the firefighting effort, he said.
Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman Craig Dally earlier said six appliances were at the two-storey building, which was described as being "well involved" when firefighters arrived.
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