Sister saves brother in house fire

A teenage girl climbed out of her bedroom window to escape flames and save the life of her brother as a Gisborne home burned to the ground early yesterday morning.

The fire came 12 hours after a child-lit fire threatened homes in suburban Kaiti on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of residents and a few days after a grass fire got out of control in Awapuni Road causing hundreds to evacuate from their homes.

Only parts of walls and one blackened fretwork remained of the more than 100-year-old Riverside Road hillside property yesterday.

It was a family five-bedroom home, where a brother, sister and friend - all in their late teens - were staying . The parents, who rent the property, were camping out of town.

The sounds of smoke alarms and crackling woke the sister and her friend, who were initially trapped.

"It was well alight and threatened the escape route through the hallway. It was extremely risky," Gisborne brigade station officer Chris Grimson said.

The girls, sleeping in the same room, escaped through their bedroom window instead.

Once outside, they ran to the rear of the house to alert the brother in his bedroom. Unable to rouse him, the sister climbed into the burning building to wake him. They both ran out the front door, chased by flames.

"They had a very lucky escape."

The cause of the fire was still being investigated but was not being treated as suspicious.

- NZPA