Laptop may have caused fatal fire

One of the survivors at the scene of the fire. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The flatmate of a 25-year-old mother who died in a house fire in Paraparaumu last night has described how she tried to save her.

A laptop may have caused the fatal house fire overnight in which the victim woman died and her two children were seriously injured.

Police and the Fire Service have completed a scene examination of the Callender Terrace house gutted by the fire which broke out just after midnight.

Leahmay Mijares-Osik said her flatmate, who has yet to be named, took the batteries out of the only smoke alarm in the house just hours before the blaze.

"She went in there and she took the battery and obviously didn't put it back ...who would have thought we would have a fire that night?" she told TV3 tonight.

"I tried going from my room to the hallway that leads to her room but it was too smokey..I couldn't go in because then I would suffocate myself,"

Senior Sergeant Alasdair MacMillan said three adults and three children were in the house at the time of the fire.

Two children, aged five and seven, suffering from smoke inhalation were this afternoon airlifted from Wellington Hospital to Starship Hospital.

Neighbours rescued another child from a bedroom after smashing a window at the rear of the house. Two adults and a baby were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation.

Police believed the fire started near a laptop which was in the corner of the lounge and was charging at the time, Mr MacMillan said.

Central Fire Communications shift manager Chris Dalton confirmed the house had a smoke alarm, which had been disabled the day before.

"It went off at 5 o'clock for no apparent reason, and they removed the battery from it.

"They only had one working and if they had more than one working smoke alarm it wouldn't have been the tragedy that has unfortunately happened," he told NZPA.

Police said the name of the dead woman might be released tomorrow once family living overseas had been contacted.

- NZPA