In the 20 minutes between tenants leaving and firefighters quenching a blaze, the kitchen was trashed and the rest of a Bulls house suffered smoke damage.
The fire in Hudson St in mid-May left the rented house structurally sound, but with major interior damage, Bulls Deputy Chief Fire Officer Adrian Bennie said. It was open to the public from 10am-3pm on June 2, to show the fire's effect.
People were most impressed by how fast it all happened, the damage to the kitchen and the smoke damage to the rest of the house, Bennie said.
There were 270 visitors, which kept three Fire and Emergency New Zealand fire safety officers and six Bulls volunteers very busy. Visitors were from Whanganui and Palmerston North, as well as Bulls.
The fire went up an internal wall and into the roof, where temperatures reached 900C.