Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Lamp blamed for Waipukurau blaze

By COREY CHARLTON AND PATRICK O'SULLIVAN
Hawkes Bay Today·
24 Sep, 2012 12:36 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The neighbour of a home destroyed by a fire says he feared the occupant was inside the home when he saw it engulfed in flames.

The fire at the unoccupied Waipukurau home is believed to have started from a lamp on a stand in the corner of a room - what authorities are calling a "million-to-one" chance.

Bryan Saxton lives directly across the road from the Freyburg Terrace property and woke about 12.30am on Friday to see the massive fire fully under way.

"I was just hoping he wasn't in there. When I woke up the next morning and saw the tape around there, I thought he must have been.

"When I saw it, the flames would have been as high as the roof. By the time the fire engines got here, she was as high as that chimney. All the windows were blowing, I could hear them popping.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"[It] was a thing to see, I didn't know a house could go up so fast."

He was surprised at how quickly it went up in flames and thought the strong wind that evening helped stoke it.

He said he never again wanted to see another fire like it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The fire appeared to have gutted the inside of the house, but the structure itself remained standing.

Mr Saxton said he didn't know the occupant very well, and they had only chatted a few times.

Waipukurau deputy chief fire officer Owen Spotswood said they arrived to see smoke and flames coming down the street, and while it only took about 10 minutes to stop the fire, it took three hours to extinguish it.

"I believe the house is probably past the point of return," he said.

The cause was "just a normal lamp on a stand in the corner of the room".

"The occupant had left to travel out of town early in the evening and had left the light on in the lounge to indicate somebody was home. He has probably done it a million times before without a problem, but it only takes that million-to-one time to create a problem.

"We considered it quite suspicious to begin with, so police and fire safety were involved."

Meanwhile, an out-of-control burn-off was attended by rural fire fighters in Hastings yesterday.

It is believed smoke from the fire had nearby residents concerned a small plane had crashed.

The fire, at a rural property on Omahu Road, was too close to a nearby hillside and set it alight.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Hastings District Council Rural Fire officers extinguished the flames, said emergency management officer Warren Meldrum.

"Burn-offs can be a bit of a problem especially this time of year," he said. "It's still open fire season and people have all their offcuts and things to burn and need to be reminded to take heaps of care."

Earlier this month Napier firefighters warned residents after attending two out-of-control burn-offs in one morning.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP