Woman praised for waking neighbours in fire

A firefighter at the blaze. Image taken from nzherald.co.nz video

Firefighters are praising a west Auckland woman who rushed into her neighbour's burning house, woke the sleeping occupants and almost certainly saved their lives.

Toese Faia and Tili Suailui were asleep in their Hanui Place house in Massey about 4pm yesterday, unaware a fire was filling it with potentially lethal smoke.

Neighbour Monica Finepolo rushed into the burning and smoke-filled house when her son told her of the fire. She woke them both and got them outside to safety.

Station officer Len Blake, office in charge of the team of firefighters who fought the blaze, said he couldn't praise Mrs Finepolo's actions "high enough".

If she had not been home "we could have had a tragedy".

He said the occupants got them out of the house just in time as the fire was totally involved when the Fire Service turned up.

The top floor of the house was a write-off, Mr Blake said.

Mr Blake said it was disappointing to find there were no smoke alarms in the house, especially in west Auckland where the Fire Service supplied and installed them at no charge.

The cause of the blaze was still being investigated.

- NZPA