Gisborne house severely damaged by fire fanned by strong winds

Specialist fire investigators have an inquiry under way into a fire on Saturday afternoon that swept through two sheds, a caravan and the rear of a house in Ngaio St in Te Hapara. Photo / Murray Robertson

Fire devastated a Ngaio St property in Te Hapara on Saturday afternoon and strong southerly winds fanned the flames to burn a shed next door.

Fire and Emergency NZ received the first 111 calls about the blaze about 5pm.

“It started in a shed on the main property, spread to a caravan alongside that shed and from there the flames, fanned by the southerly, spread to the rear of the house,” a senior firefighter said.

“The fire also spread into a shed on the boundary of the property alongside it.

“A resident tried to tackle the fire with a garden hose - tried to slow it down - but it was beyond his capability.”

Fire ripped through a shed, a caravan and large areas of a house before setting alight a neighbour's shed in Ngaio St off Childers Rd in Te Hapara on Saturday afternoon. Photo / Murray Robertson

The fire destroyed the two sheds and the caravan, and caused extensive damage to the rear of the house.

“The house sustained 50% fire damage and 100% smoke damage,” the senior firefighter said.

“The fire crews did an amazing job in stopping the fire from spreading further into the house and also from stopping it reaching the house next door.”

The owner of the home where the fire started, Danielle Carrington, said she and her family were " pretty devastated”.

“It’s our family home. Dad’s dad built it. We were so lucky the fire happened in the afternoon and not in the dead of night.”

The family were alerted when they saw flames in the shed.

“I tried to put it out with a hose, but it got too much for me,” said Gaine Carrington, Danielle’s father.

“I think if the wind had not got up I might have been able to contain it. Because of the wind the fire spread so fast.”

Among the possessions lost were old, irreplaceable family photographs on a back wall destroyed in the fire.

“But otherwise it could have been a lot worse” Danielle said.

Her father said the firefighters did a top job and saved a lot of the house and contents.

“We’re very grateful.”

Neighbour Samuel Moeke lost nearly everything in his shed, which was gutted by the fire.

The shed on Samuel Moeke's place next door was also caught up in the inferno as strong southerly winds fanned the flames his way. Firefighters did well to stop the fire spreading to his home. Photo / Murray Robertson

“We heard a loud noise and went outside to see smoke pouring across towards our house,” he said. “Then we saw the fire starting in our shed.

“We moved our cars out of the way. I was pretty calm but I felt urgency to get stuff out of the way of the flames.

“A big shout out to the firefighters. Without their work our house would have gone up, too.”

Fire destroyed the contents of the neighbour's shed, bar this boxing bag. Photo / Murray Robertson

No one was injured in the emergency.

Fire crews spent several hours dampening down after it took them about an hour to put out the fire.

Specialist fire investigators were called in.

‘It was more than just a woolshed. It was a community facility’

It was the second major fire Fenz dealt with on Saturday.

Just before 9am, firefighters were called to a woolshed fire at Muriwai’s Wairakaia Station, owned by Rob and Sandra Faulkner.

“We saw the smoke from the fire as we were leaving the city,” a senior firefighter said. “The woolshed was fully involved when we got there and the roof had caved in.”

It took multiple crews several hours to extinguish it. The building was destroyed.

Fire destroyed a woolshed on Wairakaia Station at Muriwai on Saturday morning and it has been put down to an electrical fault.

Crews from Patutahi, Gisborne city and Eastland Fire responded.

Rob Faulkner said it could not have happened at a worse time.

“It was started by some sort of electrical fault, we’ve been told by the assessors. We smelt smoke from our home 600 metres away, then heard a loud explosion and saw a mushroom cloud of smoke in the sky.

“We’re absolutely devastated. It was more than just a woolshed. It was a community facility that hosted all sorts of get-togethers.”

The woolshed was built 40 years ago by Rob’s father Rodney from timber planted by their forebears.

Firefighters responded to a third call on Saturday at 8pm.

A small fire had started in the wall of a house at Te Karaka.

“The residents tackled it with a hose and had it out by the time a fire crew from the Te Karaka volunteer brigade arrived,” a senior firefighter said. “The TK crew finished it off.”

The cause is under investigation.