A youngster playing with a lighter caused a fire that gutted a bedroom at a rented Ngatai Rd home and resulted in a man being admitted to hospital due to smoke inhalation.
Maunganui fire station officer Roger Pickett said the "potentially life-threatening" fire started by the young child was contained to one bedroom but also resulted in smoke damage to the rest of the house.
Emergency services were called to the house at 3.45pm on Saturday and arrived before the flames spread to other rooms in the rented brick house, which had no smoke alarms sounding.
Mr Pickett said all the walls in one bedroom were burned and inside the bedroom a foam-covered mattress had been giving off "very toxic fumes".
The male occupant had managed to get the two boys out but he was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, he said. The man was believed to be the boys' father.