Queenstown house 'gutted' by fire, person rescued from balcony

A person has been rescued from a Queenstown home after it became engulfed in flames overnight.

Crews received multiple calls to the blaze on Wynyard Crescent around midnight.

Fire and Emergency southern shift manager Mau Barbara said about 16 firefighters responded and the house was well ablaze on arrival.

He said a person was rescued from a balcony and handed over to ambulance staff.

A witness said the house had been "gutted" by the blaze, but it had not collapsed.

He said neighbours appeared concerned there was a person still in the two-storey house and had been hunting for a ladder.

At least 16 firefighters attended the Wynyard Crescent fire.

He believed the person who was rescued was an elderly man who spent some time talking with police. All other occupants were accounted for earlier.

At the time of the fire the temperature was -2C and the street was covered in an inch of snow and ice, he said.

Barbard said specialist fire investigators would work to determine the cause today, but it had not been deemed suspicious.

Emergency services were working in sub-zero temperatures, with ice and snow on the street.