Napier fire: Preschooler escaped and warned neighbours mum was still inside

A woman was rescued from a fire-ravaged Napier home on Monday after one of her two pre-school children escaped and told neighbours she was still inside.

Dragged from the Maraenui house by firefighters, she was flown to hospital by a rescue helicopter which had landed next-door on a green-space and vacated former state housing site.

Early on Monday night she was reported by Hawke's Bay District Health Board to be in a critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit.

The woman was living in the house on the corner of Lister Cr and Lister Pl, with a four-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter, who were later reported by family to be safe with a family member.

Witnesses said they understood the children may have been helped out through a window, and were quick to commend those who had rushed to help.

One, alerted first by the smoke, said: "When I first got there they said no one was inside."

It was then a young survivor told them his mother was still in the house, and as the lounge-room corner of the brick house was enveloped in flames with its windows blown out, neighbours tried to enter through the front door but had to smash a window in another room.

Firefighters entered, finding the woman on the floor, and there were understood to have been initial fears that another person was also in the house. She had apparently recently left for the nearby shops.

ne person sustained critical injuries in the fire on the corner of Lister Cres and Lister Pl. Photo / Warren Buckland

With emergency services called at 12.31pm, three fire trucks, police and three ambulances were at the scene, and a rescue helicopter was diverted from a marine search near Haumoana.

A St John spokeswoman confirmed one person had been taken to hospital by rescue helicopter in a critical condition and another two people had been treated for minor injuries at the scene.

Crews were called to the corner of Lister Cres and Lister Pl at 12.31pm. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Hawke's Bay Today reporter on the scene said Lister Crescent was initially blocked off at both ends.

Police closed access to Lister Cr to all but emergency services and some residents for some time, but the fire was extinguished quickly, although a small smoke drift remained from the roof. The helicopter flew from the scene at about 1.45pm.

The damage from the fire appeared to have been confined to a room on the front western side of the house.