Emergency services are attending a large fire in St. Marys Bay with nearby residents being evacuated. Video / Hayden Woodward
A neighbour on one of Auckland’s most historic streets found himself rescuing a man and his family’s cat from a burning property overnight.
The three-storey, multi-wing home on a cul-de-sac in St Marys Bay was engulfed in flames that sparked at around 1am today.
Firefighters spent the best part of six hours tackling the flames, by 7.30am they were still dampening down hot pockets as nearby evacuated residents returned to their homes.
But it wasn’t just the fire crews hard at work on Westwood Tce.
Neighbour Blair Huston, who has lived in his property for the past 10 years, awoke at 1.09am to what sounded like raised voices and breaking glass.
The property in question was on Westwood Terrace, a large three-storey home at the end of the cul-de-sac. Photo / Supplied
“I looked up and saw an orange glow, thought ‘What the hell?’ so I jumped out of bed and saw the house was really, really well involved,” he told the Herald.
Donning a dressing gown, Huston rushed down the street to the home that, at this stage, had flames bursting from the roof.
“It was quite chaotic,” he said, reflecting on the scene before him.
“Women were screaming, I was yelling ‘What’s going on?’ and I was worried somebody was actually in the burning part and trapped.”
The popping and banging sounds continued as Huston, the lone neighbour on the street upon his arrival, made his way towards the property’s front door - which at this stage had not caught fire.
Ten appliances were at the scene to tackle the worst of the fire. Photo / Hayden Woodward
Banging on the door with such force it caved in, he found a man standing in the hallway staring at him.
“Maybe he was a bit asleep or shocked,” said Huston.
“But anyway, I grabbed him and told him to move and said ‘Dude, you gotta get out of here, this place is really, really on fire’.”
The wind was carrying smoke away from the property, which was fortunate for Huston who whilst pulling the man to safety, spotted the family cat run inside the house.
This morning fire crews were still tackling the rising smoke and flames in the northern wing of the property, Photo / Hayden Woodward
Huston dropped the man off, then returned into the hallway to fetch the pet.
“It was more than happy to be rescued,” he said.
Firefighters arrived shortly afterwards and began fighting the flames. Fire and Emergency shift manager Carren Larking said the first crews transmitted a third alarm to call for extra resources.
Ten trucks were at the scene to tackle the worst of the fire. Huston said it took at least 30 minutes before firefighters made any impact on the flames.
Huston then turned to neighbourhood support - concerned about large trees next to the burning property fearing that they might catch fire.
“I was going around and waking everybody up,” he said.
“There’s an old couple next door where one is bedridden. We had to wake him up in case they had to get out in a hurry. Others we had to bang, bang on the door, some neighbours didn’t wake up at all.”
It’s understood the residents in question were one of the original families on the street. Photo / Cheree Kinnear
Night turned to morning and fire crews were still working hard to tackle the rising smoke and flames in the northern wing of the property, which Huston described as “a sprawling house”.
While the blaze was at its hottest, firefighters could be seen dousing flames with a number of crew spotted on the second floor dousing flames below.
The property was owned by a family consisting of a couple in their 60s and at least two daughters, Huston said.
