Keep looking while you're cooking. Sound advice for us all, especially when it comes to unattended cooking. Unfortunately for Aroha Te Kani and her family their Wrigley Rd home and most of their belongings were destroyed after a cooking appliance was left on while they were out of the house at the weekend.
The New Zealand Fire Service reports in a typical year kitchen fires are the leading cause of home fires. Unattended cooking causes more fires and deaths than any other cause of fire. Luckily in this case no-one was hurt or killed. Each year more than 20,000 fires are attended by the Fire Service, including nearly 5000 house fires.
The Fire Service says on average there are 38 fire deaths, 20 of which are the result of accidental house fires.
Government statistics reveal 49 per cent of fires start at evening meal times, with 64 per cent involving frying, including a staggering 43 per cent result from unattended cooking. Sadly for Aroha Te Kani, she now only has a handful of trophies retrieved from what remains of her home she rented with her two sons for about three years.
To make things worse, they had no contents insurance. Aroha and her family have moved in with her sister next door.
