A house sustained "extensive" smoke damage after its occupant left cooking unattended on the stove top on Sunday night.
Tauranga fire senior station officer Grant Taylor says the woman had a pot of oil on the stove, but left and went into another room, where she was using a computer.

Tauranga fire senior station officer Grant Taylor says a $15 smoke alarm would have saved the victim of this fire a whole lot of trouble.

After some time she noticed thick black smoke wafting through the house.
A small fire had ignited on the stove top, but it was extinguished by a neighbour, says Grant.
He says the occupant of the house failed to adhere to two simple fire safety messages - never leave cooking unattended and not having a smoke alarm installed.
"The cost of a $15 smoke alarm would have saved her the bad smoke damage."
He says people should never leave their cooking unattended. No one sustained injury.

Fire fighters also responded to two separate power boxes on fire in Mount Maunganui on Sunday night.
The first power box caught fire at 7.15pm on Kippen Way and the second was on Eversham Road at about 9.30pm.
Both power boxes sustained significant fire damage but were quickly extinguished by fire fighters.