KEY POINTS:
Quick-thinking neighbours who helped rescue a family from a burning house in West Auckland today are now rallying round to collect clothes and essentials to replace everything lost in the blaze.
Two adults and four children were taken to hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation, after the Bahari Drive fire in suburban Ranui.
They were reported to be in a stable and comfortable condition at North Shore Hospital.
Fire safety officer Roy Warren said he was fairly confident the fire started behind a power point in the kitchen, which was either overloaded or had a short circuit.
"All the evidence points to it, but I won't be taking it any further. The insurers may want to get an electrical expert in to confirm it, but I'm satisfied that is the cause," Mr Warren said.
The house was ruined and every surface black and charred.
"It's not liveable. It just stinks and it's a huge mess."
He said he was fairly sure there were no smoke alarms fitted, but he needed to speak to the occupants to confirm that.
Their neighbours' brave actions definitely saved their lives, he said.
"The family had to be rescued by neighbours but they would have perished otherwise.
"Luckily, there was a car parked by the children's bedroom window, so a neighbour stood on the car to get them out.
"But if there had been smoke alarms, they would have woken up early enough to walk out, but the fire was well under way by then.
"This was within a whisker of being a multiple tragedy," Mr Warren said.
The house was well alight when firefighters arrived just before 2.30am.
Sam Vetui, 28, was watching DVDs with his wife Lynette, 23, when he went outside for some fresh air.
"He could see flames and heard a man yelling for help," Mrs Vetui said.
She called the fire brigade, while Mr Vetui rushed to the burning house with some other neighbours to help two young girls out of the single storey building.
Two other occupants had already managed to escape.
"We saw a woman lying down on the grass outside, and we heard that a boy had been taken to a neighbour's house," Mrs Vetui said.
"Two little girls were still stuck inside so they broke a window.
"One girl was hiding under a blanket near her bedroom door and the other girl was lying on the floor in the same room."
Mr Vetui and another neighbour, known only as Steve, managed to get the girls out of the house and handed them over the fence.
Mr Vetui noticed the girl who had been hiding under the blanket was not breathing, so he did CPR and she quickly started breathing again.
Another neighbour put the other girl in her shower to cool her down.
Mrs Vetui said her husband had a first aid certificate but he had never had to use it in an emergency before.
Mr Vetui was later taken to North Shore Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. He was described as being in a stable condition.
When asked if she thought her husband was a hero, Mrs Vetui said he was just happy that everyone was fine.
"The house has completely burnt to the ground. I was worried when he went in there, but there were a lot of other men who helped."
The Fire Service now plans to hold open homes at the scene.
"People often don't realise just how quickly a fire spreads and the need to prepare their families for what to do in the event of a fire," said Senior Station Officer Mike McEnaney.
"By seeing the results of a fire firsthand and talking to the Fire Service they can learn valuable information about preventing fires and planning to escape from fires."
Mr McEnaney says the open homes would be held on February 12 at 6pm and February 14 at 1pm.
The Fire Service would take families through the house showing them significant points of interest like where and how the fire started, how damage could have been reduced and the impact of smoke and flames.
Fire safety information will be available for people to take away.
"We hope that by holding this open home we can prevent fires like this happening to other families," Mr McEnaney said.
- NZPA
