The house fires continue in Ōtautahi as an allegedly abandoned house became the latest victim of an early morning blaze.
Firefighters scrambled to put out the smoke billowing from a property in Phillipstown, near Christchurch’s city centre, after being called to the scene at 7.45am.
A firetruck from Woolston initially arrived at the scene on Bordesley St, before finding the house well-involved and got to work extinguishing it.
Further fire units arrived from Christchurch Central.
It took firefighters only 30 minutes to get the house fire under control - the contained notice came through at 8.16am according to Fire and Emergency’s Alex Norris.
Three trucks worked to extinguish the fire.
At the scene of the blaze, a police cordon on each end of Bordesley was set up to block traffic and pedestrians from coming near the scene.
While grey smoke continues to billow from the property’s roof, a nearby resident returning from the scene said firefighters appeared to have it under control.
”The house is totally gutted, the fire has engulfed it completely,” said the neighbour who spotted the fire while taking her daughter to school.
”From my understanding, the house was abandoned.”
This fire adds to the total of several properties in the Christchurch district which have caught fire in recent weeks, injuring some and in one case killing its occupant.
The most notable instance was last week’s fatal blaze, which killed 88-year-old woman Thelma Durant who lived in the Ilam home.
It initially sparked at 3.30am on Wednesday last week, before reigniting hours later after fire crews had left the scene - leaving a lone police officer to initially control the situation.
The day prior, a house in Linwood caught fire and prompted a heavy emergency service turnout that afternoon.
Four crews - 16 firefighters - responded to the fire that day, smoke could be seen piling out of the property’s roof and covering nearby properties.
Only a week earlier than this, investigations were opened into two fires at an intermediate school in Burnside - both being lit within hours of each other.
While the blazes were minimal, it prompted police to brand the incident at Wairarapa Cobham Intermediate as “suspicious”.
Three weeks before, a south Christchurch home turned into a heat trap that injured two residents after sparking near an ongoing Elton John concert.
Multiple fire crews from Christchurch Central, Wigram and Spreydon were called to the fire in Spreydon, Fire and Emergency said the property’s owner re-entered the house after initially escaping, which is what caused his injury.
The month before that, a person was arrested after two Christchurch properties caught fire at roughly the same time.
One fire at the time was in the southwestern suburb of Hillmorton and the other in rural Burnham, were both “well-involved”, with multiple fire units attending.
Police ended up arresting a teenage woman in connection to the Hillmorton fire on Bidwell Pl, charged with wilfully setting fire to property.
After yet another two house fires at the end of December, Fire and Emergency Shift Manager, Simon Lyford told the Herald while there was no indication of a trend in house fires headed into summer, it was “a good time” to remind the public to be aware of fire risks.
“Check your smoke alarms and make sure you’re aware when cooking - that you don’t get tied up in the festive celebrations, but keep an eye on the food,” he said at the time.
“It’s a massive disruption to the families and headed into this time of year, if there’s serious damage, it’s not the easiest to find emergency accommodation either.”
Ian Dallison details to Parole Board the money woes that left him 'wound up'.