Flames claim heroic teen's life

Corey McLean was killed trying to save his friend.

Tributes flowed last night for the 16-year-old boy killed in a house fire trying to get his pregnant friend to safety.

Family members thought Corey McLean had escaped the blaze at the Christchurch house yesterday but had miscounted in the shock and confusion. It is believed he was trapped after pushing his pregnant friend out the door.

Fire broke out at the Medina Crescent house just after 4am, neighbours waking to screaming and explosions.

Wendi Marsh lived at the house with her three teenage children, Rikki, Mikayla and Cheyanne Marsh.

Watch: One dead, eight injured after CHCH fire

Four other teenagers including Sayler Hutchinson-Clarke and Corey McLean had stayed the night.

"It was just awful. By the time we got there the fire was throughout the house," said neighbour Julie Stechmann.

"There was a lot of panic and confusion." She believed the fire started in the kitchen and dining area and that everyone was asleep in the bedrooms when it broke out. "They were woken by the smoke detectors and they thought everyone was out." McLean had tried to get a pregnant woman in her 20s out of the house when he got trapped.

"They thought he was out."

The seven who made it out of the house were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation but were discharged hours later.

Last night former girlfriend Ashley Rose Mockford paid tribute to McLean on Facebook, writing "I can't believe you're gone I'm broken come back please."

Other friends set up a memorial page dedicated to McLean.

The Housing New Zealand property was badly damaged in the blaze and the shaken family are in a hotel for the weekend until emergency accommodation can be found tomorrow.

Stechmann appealed to the public for clothing, food and household items for the family who lost everything in the fire.

"They have nothing apart from what they were wearing, some of them were not even wearing shoes."

The death has been referred to the coroner.