Police do not yet know the gender or identity of a person that died in a Maungatapu house fire today.
Neighbours heard an explosion and flames were seen coming from the roof of a Moiri Place home where fire broke out shortly before 1pm.
A man was heard crying loudly and a woman was being comforted by people at the scene.
Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Turner of Tauranga Police confirmed a body had been found inside the home.
"We do not know who it is," said Mr Turner.
"We do not know if it is a man or a woman."
Mr Turner said police would be guarding the address overnight and carrying out a detailed scene examination on Wednesday.
"We will be removing the body from the scene for forensics."
He did not know the cause of the fire at this stage.
Neighbour Mark Wassung was at home when he heard an explosion coming from the neighbour's property.
"So I ran down to the end of the driveway," he said. "The neighbour was coming down the driveway so I asked if someone had called the fire brigade, and they had."
Maureen Van Der Zee said she heard a loud bang at about 12.55pm.
"It was like a big explosion so I went out to the letterbox . . . it was a shock to have a house exploding like that, and sad."
Mrs Van Der Zee was a long-term resident and had lived in the street for 30 years. She said the house was occupied by one woman.
"I only spoke to her a couple of times and I think she was in the house by herself. She would have lived there for about three or four years."
Neighbour Antoon Moonen was working from home when the fire started. "Flames were shooting out of the roof," he said. "All of a sudden there was a plume of smoke."
Mr Moonen said there was a lot of damage to the property.
"I would imagine they would be pulling the whole thing down."
"It is a disaster for the family," he said.
Tauranga Fire Service senior station officer Mark Keller said seven fire trucks attended the scene, including two from Greerton, three from Tauranga and one from Mount Maunganui.
"We had three firefighters wearing breathing apparatus enter the scene."
St John Ambulance staff were also at the scene.