Unattended cooking causes house fire

UPDATE 6.15PM: A woman who left her avenues house unaware that cooking was unattended will not be spending the night at home, after a fire caused significant damage in the roof.

Emergency services were called to the single-storey brick home on 19th Ave about 5.20pm, with three fire appliances attending and crews putting out the fire.

Tauranga Fire Brigade senior station officer Len Sabin says the woman occupant was unaware there was cooking on the stove when she left, which had been put on top of the stove by another person.

'So the cooking was left unattended and it's obviously caught fire and gone straight up in the extraction system into the roof space.

'So our crews have basically been involved in ventilating the house and we're up in the roof space now just clearing it is clear as there has been a fire up in the roof space.”

Len says fire crews will clear the roof tonight 'but she [the occupant] won't be occupying the house tonight because there is melted wiring everywhere up in the ceiling”.

'It has caused a significant amount of damage up in the roof space.”

Len says the house has no smoke alarms, which could have raised the alarm earlier to neighbours.

'I'm not sure who actually called it in, they probably saw the smoke and called it in, but a smoke alarm is often something picked up by neighbours; especially at this time of day when there's plenty of people around.

'It's pretty disappointing attending another house fire without a smoke alarm but we can only urge people to put them in," says Len.

'The kitchen has damage to the stove, wall linings and a little bit of the ceiling but the majority of damage is actually in the roof space because it's gone straight in the roof space.”

EARLIER: Emergency services are responding to a house fire in the city on 19th Ave.

Northern Fire Communications shift manager Steve Smith says two fire appliances are at the scene, with personnel fighting the fire.


Firefighters attend a house fire down a driveway on 19th Ave.

A reporter at the scene says the fire was in a single-storey brick home down a driveway.

"Three apliances were here and one has gone, and I believe the fire has been put out."

The reporter says 19th Ave has been closed to traffic, from Botanical Rd to Cameron Rd.

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