Sleeping Mount Maunganui residents were woken to a sounding car horn alerting them to a car fire in the street early this morning.
At about 3.30am a Links Avenue resident woke to the intermittently beeping car horn to find a Holden Commodore station wagon on fire in the street.
They went to contact the neighbour, and owner of the Holden, before the Fire Service was called.
Mount Maunganui fire fighters attended the blaze just down the road from the station on Golf Road.
“The owner was alerted by a neighbour who heard the horn sounding,” says Senior Station Officer Lindsay Nicol.
“The horn was sounding intermittently, probably because of an electrical shortage due to the fire. It was still making some pretty pathetic beeps when we were got there.”
Lindsay says the fire was “pretty much under control” by the owner and neighbours by the time the Fire Service arrived.
Firefighters used a high pressure hose and thermal imaging camera to find hot spots to be doused.
The fire is believed to have started in the centre console, but the cause is not known. Lindsay says it is not thought to be suspicious.
Earlier in the night about 8.30pm, a Waihi Beach resident was also alerted to his car being on fire by the car’s horn.
Volunteer firefighters from Waihi Beach, Waihi and Athenree attended the fire which was inside a double garage.
That fire is thought to have started in the car’s dash area and be caused by an electrical fault.