Quick actions saves heater from burning flat down

Gas bottles. Photo / File

It was a close call for a Kawakawa St resident after their gas heater caught fire inside their flat on Tuesday afternoon.

Fire and Emergency were alerted to the incident just after 3pm.

Senior station officer Craig Gardiner said it was the quick actions of the son of a nearby flat resident who helped the situation from getting any worse.

"He grabbed the heater and got it outside to save it from catching the woman's flat on fire."

A fire crew doused the burning heater with water at the scene to put it out.

Gardiner said something had gone wrong with the gas heater, and that it was probably the regulator.

The woman suffered burns to her hand while trying to move the heater, and was treated by ambulance staff at the scene.

The man who took the heater outside was uninjured.