Otara house blaze 'a scary wake-up call'

Photo / file

The brother of a man who escaped a fire at his Otara state house this morning said it was a "scary wake-up call".

Three fire trucks and 12 firefighters from Otara, Otahuhu and Papatoetoe attended the scene of the blaze on Gilbert Rd in Otara, around 2.15pm this morning.

Otara Fire Station officer Richard Knight said the man, Housing New Zealand tenant Basil Pickering who had suffered burns to one of his hands, was outside the house when crews arrived.

He quickly alerted the crew that someone was still inside and firefighters found an unresponsive woman in the smokelogged house.

The team had to drag the woman from the burning home.

Mr Pickering's brother William Pickering lives on the same street and was woken when his brother hammered on his door around 4am.

He had received calls from other family members when they heard the news on the radio this morning.

"He's at a house up the road, but came in knocking on the door at 4 in the morning saying he needed somewhere to sleep because his house had been burnt.

"It was a bit of a scary wake-up call.

He was not sure what was going to happen to his brother's Housing New Zealand tenancy in light of the fire, he said.

Fairfax Media reported the 53-year-old man was cooking chips and meat in the early hours of the morning when he took some tramadol because he was in pain.

"Next thing you know I fell asleep," he said.

"I saw heaps of smoke in the kitchen, I turned around and there was a fire on the stove."

Mr Knight said when fire crews arrived the blaze was spreading quickly.

After dragging the woman from the house, the Otara fire crew "attacked" the fire from inside the house, while Otahuhu crews tried to control the blaze by removing roof tiles.

"It's good to have successfully got someone out and they're still alive," he said.

"We managed to stop the fire escalating. It's looking pretty good. The only way you could even tell if there had been a fire there was if you drove around and saw the tiles missing off the roof," he said.

St John ambulance paramedics treated two patients at the scene. The man was treated for his burns, and the woman was treated for smoke inhalation.

Neither person was transported to hospital.

A fire scene investigator would return to the property later today.