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Desperate relatives and neighbours battled unsuccessfully yesterday morning to save a man who died as a fire ripped through his family villa.
Locky Lakua, 43, was found dead after he was trapped in his mother's home in Kingsland.
Police and fire investigators completed a study of the scene and the body was taken to Auckland Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Emergency services were called after the alarm was raised just after 2am.
Pepe Lokeni, Lakua's niece, lives two doors down from the gutted house with other members of her family, and was woken by her aunt screaming.
By the time Lokeni and her brother Devlin rushed to their uncle's aid, smoke was already billowing from the house.
Knowing his uncle was trapped, Devlin tried to rescue the 43-year-old but was beaten back by flames. "I called his name but there was no response," said Pepe Lokeni. "The fire was so strong and fast. There was nothing we could do."
Lakua's neighbour, Rob Cameron, was woken by Pepe's shouting and ran outside to fight the fire with his garden hose.
"I saw a puff of smoke and thought I better get out there quick. But it was a futile attempt, so I just started squirting along the fence line to stop the fire spreading."
Lakua was a "top bloke" said Cameron, a man who loved rugby league and would share food with neighbours at Christmas. "He was a great neighbour. It's a damn shame," Cameron said. "He loved the good times but we didn't think he'd go like this."
No one else was in the house as it was being renovated for the first time since the family moved there in the 1960s, and Pepe said her uncle would sleep in the house only after drinking.
"He would crank up the music to full and all the neighbours would say 'There goes No 9 again'."
Friends and family gathered outside the New Bond St home yesterday to mourn. The youngest of 13 children, Lakua never married. He worked in Manukau.
