The fire that claimed two young lives in Tauranga early this morning was "fierce", firefighters have said.
They said the two young boys' mother and sister were fortunate to have escaped with their lives.
Their five-year-old sister emerged from the burning home on Otumoetai Rd screaming for help about 7.30am.
The children's
mother and one other adult also escaped but had to stand on the roadside, helplessly watching the cream-coloured bungalow burn.
Emergency services were called to the house about 7.30am. But despite it taking only six minutes for three fire crews to arrive, it was too late to save the three and four-year-old boys.
Tauranga's chief fire officer Ron Devlin said today the fire was well ablaze when firefighters arrived.
"It was a very large, fierce fire," he said. "It would have been hard for any one to survive that."
When firefighters managed to get into the house they found two small bodies in the lounge.
"It's incredibly tragic for the community," Mr Devlin added. "Everyone seems to know these children in some way or another."
The remaining family members were taken to Tauranga Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Mr Devlin said fire officers were yet to determine how the blaze started and a full scene examination would be conducted today.
Police are investigating reports the two boys killed in the fire may have been playing with matches or a lighter, Newstalk ZB reported.
Senior firefighter and incident controller Paul van Kol said he could see a "huge column of smoke" pouring from the single-storey weatherboard home on his way to the fire.
"When we arrived there were flames coming out of every window of the house," he said.
A thermal imaging camera was used to search the back area of the house where three bedrooms were located to see if anyone was inside.
The front section of the home was engulfed in flames and, once the fire was out, firefighters found two small bodies in a room thought to be the lounge.
Around a dozen firefighters attended the blaze including crews from Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Tauranga's volunteer brigade.
Red and white police emergency tape now cordoned off the house, the front of which was reduced to a burnt-out shell.
A post mortem of the two children was expected to be carried out today and police would speak to their mother and other witnesses.
A couple, who live beside the family on Otumoetai Rd, said they came home to find black smoke pouring from the property. The woman, who did not want to be named, pulled into the driveway and started screaming at her husband to alert him.
He ran on to the back deck and made it inside the burning house through a ranch slider which opened into a bedroom.
"I got half way into the house and flames and heat pushed me out. The heat and the flames were so intense I couldn't get any further," he said.
The man later spoke to the distraught mother on the roadside. The woman told him she had been asleep and was herself woken by the flames.
She had stood in the middle of the road screaming "my kids are in there, my kids are in there".
Next door neighbour Jann Rau thought the family had lived in the house for 18 months.
"I could hear a woman screaming 'My babies, my babies'," Mrs Rau said.
- NZPA
Emergency services at the blaze this morning. Picture / Bay of Plenty Times
The fire that claimed two young lives in Tauranga early this morning was "fierce", firefighters have said.
They said the two young boys' mother and sister were fortunate to have escaped with their lives.
Their five-year-old sister emerged from the burning home on Otumoetai Rd screaming for help about 7.30am.
The children's
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