Family 'lucky' to escape blaze

Joanne Te Kani with her granddaughter Savanna Te Kani, 7, outside their Fordlands home where a suspicious fire broke out. PHOTO/ STEPHEN PARKER

A Rotorua grandmother says she's grateful her family of eight escaped uninjured after a fire broke out at her Fordlands home.

Joanne Te Kani was asleep in a bedroom with her 7-year-old granddaughter about 2am yesterday when she first noticed the blaze.

The fire at the rental property in Ewert St was being treated as suspicious and police were investigating.

"I woke up to that 'whooshing' sound. I happened to be asleep in the middle bedroom and the curtain was open a little and being a light sleeper saw something outside and thought, 'that's a bright ligh'," Miss Te Kani said.

She said she soon realised it was a fire in front of her house that had spread from the front door and up over the bedroom window.

"I yelled, 'We're on fire', and everybody got up fast. My daughter was still awake at that time, she was on the phone and she said she heard the dogs nutting off and not long after that, me yelling," she said.

"I went straight out the back and filled some buckets of water to put out the fire. It didn't take long and by the time the fire service got here my partner had grabbed a hose and was dampening down the hot spots."

Miss Te Kani has lived at the property for the past eight years. She said the fire had only damaged the exterior of the building. There were no smoke detectors installed.

"I'm just grateful we're all safe. I would say we're very lucky. We don't need anything and we've had support from family and my neighbours have been up to see if we were okay," Miss Te Kani said.

Rotorua police Detective Sergeant Richard Lang said an investigation was still ongoing and police were speaking with someone in relation to the case.

INVESTIGATING: Fire safety investigators at the scene of a suspicious house fire in Ewert St which police are now investigating. PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER

Fire safety investigator Stuart Booten said it was fortunate that one of the residents had woken up and was able to alert the others of the fire.

"Smoke detectors give an earlier warning and the sound will wake you in the event of a fire allowing more time to escape.

"The fire service does encourage all landlords to install photo-electric smoke detectors in all their dwellings. Or, the tenants can contact the fire service for a free home fire safety assessment on the dwelling by calling 0800 NZ FIRE [0800 693 473]."