Firefighters have been battling a large house fire on the outskirts of Inglewood in rural Taranaki this evening.
“It’s escalated,” a spokesman for Fire and Emergency New Zealand told the Herald.
“It’s totally destroyed.“
He said crews arrived on Lower Dudley Rd about 5.30pm to find the house “fully involved” in flames.
Crews from stations at Inglewood, Stratford, Waitara, New Plymouth and Hāwera attended the scene, he said.
Video footage of the fire showed large flames jumping metres into the air.
Parts of the building could be seen collapsing inside as the flames tore through.
Fire and Emergency’s spokesman updated the Herald at 8.30pm, saying crews were “still actively firefighting” but the incident was “winding down”.
He said three-quarters of the property had collapsed.
A specialist fire investigator was on the scene, however, at this stage, there were no indications the fire was suspicious, he said.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
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