KEY POINTS:
Firefighters on the North Shore will use shock tactics to hammer home the importance of using smoke alarms.
Members of the public will be welcome tomorrow to inspect the damage caused by a blaze at a Hillcrest house that was not fitted with working smoke alarms.
The house, destroyed on Sunday, is the second serious structure fire on the North Shore in a week. The Importer in Takapuna was gutted on Wednesday.
Firefighters said the damage would have been minimal if the furniture warehouse had had sprinklers and an alarm linked to the Fire Service.
The Hillcrest house still smells of smoke from Sunday's blaze and its charred walls in the lounge, hallway and kitchen look like a scene from a horror movie.
Only the shell of a what looked like a couch remains in the lounge and the floor has almost crumbled. The windows have shattered and a wooden door has a gaping hole through it.
Birkenhead station officer Dave Beatson said staff tried to hold public open days whenever a building or house in their patch was severely damaged and they believed a lesson could be learned.
"People can see the effect and the damage that can be caused in just a matter of minutes. You can be left with nothing.
"We've had people come out of these things in tears."
Peter and Shirley Petueli's house on Coronation Rd is a prime example of a house that could have been saved with smoke alarms, Mr Beatson said.
The couple were asleep in their bedroom on Sunday with the door closed when their 5-year-old son Sam, who had been playing in the lounge where the fire started, came running in to alert his parents.
Eight out of 10 fire deaths occur in homes, mainly while people sleep.
Had Sam not been at home, who knows what could have happened, Mr Beatson said. The fire had been blazing for about eight minutes when the Fire Service arrived.
Mr Beatson said if the family had had a smoke alarm in the lounge, they might have been alerted to the smoke even before the flames started.
And the Fire Service could have been called sooner, limiting the damage to the lounge, he said.
Appliances had arrived within three minutes of the callout on Sunday.
The house would have to be stripped back to the beams to be rebuilt, Mr Beatson said.
There was one smoke alarm in a bedroom but it was not working.
Mr Beatson said there should be at least one smoke alarm in every room and hallway of a house.
He estimated about 60 per cent of the population had them but most people didn't have enough or the alarms weren't working. People often wouldn't install them in the kitchen because they were a nuisance, going off whenever something was cooking. Mr Beatson suggested putting an alarm on the wall opposite the element.
Few residents realised the Fire Service fitted smoke alarms for free.
"We'll go and do one and people will say, 'How much do I owe you?'. I'll say, 'A cake and a dozen beer. No, just kidding'."
* The open day at 38 Coronation Rd starts at midday tomorrow.
