After the devastating events of the Bethlehem house fire last week, Bay residents may be thinking twice about how they heat their homes.

Initially, it was reported the residents of the Bellfield Place home had no smoke alarms installed in the house, and had a 9kg gas heater which was venting.

Firefighters at the scene of the house fire last week. Photo: Andrew Campbell

Upon further investigations, Tauranga Fire Brigade senior station officer Neil Brown says the fire was caused by a multibox – which has multiple plug outlets – and that smoke alarms were present in the house but were down due to redecorating.

Neil says regardless of renovations and redecorations, having a working smoke alarm should be a priority.

'It just pays to try and keep at least one up or to put one up at night or in the evening before you go to bed,” says Neil.

'It's very important to have working smoke alarms. When you go to sleep at night you can't smell smoke.”

Neil says it's important to maintain the health of your smoke alarms and heaters in the home, and making sure smoke alarms are functional and working.

'The best protection you can give your family is putting in a photoelectric long-life smoke alarm. 'What that's going to do is give you a warning if something does go wrong, because accidents do happen; things break down.”

Neil says the Tauranga Fire Brigade offer home fire safety visits – open for anyone and everyone.

They'll pop around to your house and tell you where the best places are for your smoke alarms, talk to you about a good escape route should your house catch alight and talk to children about fire safety such as ‘a metre from the heater' and ‘always look while you cook'.

For more information, visit www.fire.org.nz